Dexter Van Zile November 26 at 9:30 PM Been listening to the Alzabo Soup Podcast and I’m hugely grateful for their insights, but I take issue with their assessment of Severian’s psychology, or maybe his underlying political theory. I think Severian is a pretty good observer of human nature and the folks at Alzabo Soup (AS) seem to think that his worldview is overly cynical and misogynistic. I’m listening to their analysis of chapters four and five. The AS folks argue that Severian has got it all wrong when he uses the relationship between the torturers and their “clients” as a metaphor for all human relationships. “All love that which they destroy,” Severian declares. I think what Severian is getting at is that questions of power infect every human relationship, even in relatively free societies. Power is an aspect of the human condition that simply cannot be evaded or avoided. Somebody always has more of it than someone else in virtually every relationship that ever exists. S...