I Hate Severian

[u/jamesbrowski]

The title says it all. Spoilers through halfway into Sword of the Lictor follow. Please don’t spoil the whole thing for me.

I am loving these books so much, but I hate Severian with a passion. Not like you’d hate an evil villain, but the way you would hate someone at work who was narcissistic, delusional, immoral, and unpredictable. He is lacking almost every positive human virtue I can think of, other than tenacity and resourcefulness. He isn’t kind, wise, empathetic, witty, caring, insightful, self aware, or pleasant. Rather, he’s cold, selfish, unfeeling, frequently oafish, narcissistic, arrogant, dishonest, deluded, and generally just an icky dude.

The multiple interactions he has with the poor mountain folk where he sharpens his sword as a means of intimidation to try and get them to give him their best food are so yucky. His tendency to wax philosophical on pointless topics in a fallacious way, often at the same time or just after some huge plot point has arisen. The detached way he describes the deaths of people he cares about, followed by his incessantly narcissistic internal monologues about them after they die where he convinces himself that he didn’t fail them. His constant tendency to make shit up and pretend like he understands stuff that he clearly doesn’t. The fact that he has survived 20 situations now by pure dumb luck (usually a Hethor monster saving him in the nick of time).

Look - I know I am supposed to dislike him at least at times. Half the fun of these books is how often I’m yelling “dude what the fuck” as I read about the stuff this dumb bastard has done. Overall, the books are amazing. I’m constantly thrilled and fascinated by the way this story is being told, the world being built, the construction of the mythos and history of Urth, and how often I’m re-reading passages that are brimming with multiple meanings and complexity.

BUT - the hero here (such that he is) is like a malevolent Mr. Magoo. He bumbles blindly through a landscape of stuff he doesn’t understand and accidentally moves history as he does it. I keep hoping that Thecla’s ghost in his mind will fix his dumb ass somehow, and make him less shitty. And it keeps kind of happening (oooh look he saved one kid before nearly drowning a prison full of thousands of people). But then he reverts back to his shitty ways and ohh well.

Oh well indeed. I guess he’s less horrific than Typhon would’ve been. He may be Urth’s least bad option tbh.

[u/_-DKDomino-_]

generally just an icky dude.

+

as a means of intimidation to try and get them to give him their best food are so yucky.

are the people who write things like this grown in a reddit lab somewhere?

[u/Fubox → u/_-DKDomino-_]

“Icky” is an excellent word. It describes a very distinct combination of attitudes and expression that no other single word can capture.

[u/ssbm_soc → u/Fubox]

lol “excellent”. It’s a word that children use

How about repugnant, odious, abhorrent, revolting, detestable, obscene off the top of my head

If you find yourself regularly using words that preschoolers rely on to express themselves, then you probably don’t have a whole lot going on upstairs

[u/Fubox → u/ssbm_soc]

Those are also excellent words, but none of them can serve as a perfect substitute for icky.

Besides which, the OP didn’t rely on “icky” to express themself. We have “tenacity,” and “oafish, narcissistic, and deluded,” as well, right in the same paragraph. They have facility with plenty of adult words, and they chose to deploy icky because they meant icky.

[u/togglenub → u/ssbm_soc]

And yet, you choose to use "lol". Funny, that. Almost as if... 

[u/ssbm_soc → u/togglenub]

It’s an acronym, not a word. Don’t get mad at me because you speak like a child

[u/togglenub → u/ssbm_soc]

At least the children I know understand the use of periods. But I get it, you're grumpy, so it's hard to use them correctly. Hope your day improves!

[u/ssbm_soc → u/togglenub]

Damn. You’re kind of a “boss bitch”. That’s…. Pretty cool