I wouldn't agree that BOTNS "revels" in violence or torture at all. I personally wouldn't enjoy a book that revels in torture or violence, but I've read the BOT

I wouldn't agree that BOTNS "revels" in violence or torture at all. I personally wouldn't enjoy a book that revels in torture or violence, but I've read the BOTNS series many times (5 or 6). Sevarian clearly doesn't enjoy his path nor does he "revel" in it and if anything he generally tries to avoid violence. Gene Wolfe as a man clearly doesn't focus on violence and certainly doesn't celebrate it, it's just a small but real part of the world both in reality and BOTNS, and I think it's an important thing we have to explore in art, which is the violence of man to man, why it exists, why we do these things.