Carnifex

Severian wakes up in a lazaret. He sees some seriously trippy shit. Dorcas is with him. He learns that he has to execute his opponent.

Location: The lazaret of the Blue Dimarchi in Nessus, near The Sanguinary Field.

Words: carnifex, lazaret, cynocephalus

carnifex - an executioner. Carnificate means "to hang."

cynocephalus - one of a fabled race of men with dog's heads, or a kind of ape having a head like that of a dog.

Right. So there is some seriously fucked up shit in this chapter. I don't know what it means, but I sure would like to figure it out. Gene Wolfe didn't put it in there to be trippy. He didn't mindfuck with random weirdness like that.

On the first page of the chapter, Severian wakes up in the lazaret and is worried that he lost his sword and cloak. Further, he worries how he will explain it to Master Palaemon, even though he is never to return to the Citadel. Then he sees that, "An ape with the head of a dog ran down the aisle, paused at my bed to look at me, then ran on."

Could this have been Father Inire? He has been described as ape-like. IDK.

Dorcas discusses Agia with Severian and makes a very keen observation. It serves less to help us understand the book and more to help us understand people.

"She's the sort of woman who's good at making puzzles for other people, but not at solving ones she didn't make herself. I think she thinks - I don't know -sidewise. So one else can follow it. She's the kind of woman people say thinks like a man, but those women don't think like real men at all, in fact, they think less like real men than most women do. They just don't think like women. The way they think is hard to follow, but that doesn't mean it's clear or deep."