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Severian did not speak, in Canog's hearing, of his life before going to Yesod and winning a New Sun, of his rise from apprentice to autarch. He spoke as the Conciliator. He talked …
03 Oct 2006, 16:51
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Well, Severian was writing ten years after he became autarch. So the gap between his becoming "king" and the "Cataclysm" was actually fifty years for those who remained on Urth. I …
01 Oct 2006, 19:26
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Talos's play bears only a superficial resemblance to the actual events related in URTH concerning the end of Urth. Logically, there is no way that Talos could have known about her…
30 Sep 2006, 06:16
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I don't really have much to add except to point out that when the incantation is repeated near the end of CITADEL, "glass" has been replaced with "grass". I don't know if it is a t…
18 Sep 2006, 05:12
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[snip] The rose, most directly, symbolizes the Claw. The Claw symbolizes the "Eternal Principle", all that is sacred and holy. (CITADEL, chapter XXXI) [snip] I don't think so. I…
11 Sep 2006, 06:43
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Severian was certainly intimate with Thecla. Perhaps the answers to your questions lie in the answer to another question: Who gave the order for her to be tortured? Not merely tort…
08 Sep 2006, 06:54
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Well, I can't go that far. Silkhorn's astral trips to Severian's era don't always dovetail, as Andrew Bollen has been insisting for some time. Jahlee was certainly cavorting naked …
06 Sep 2006, 07:14
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As long as we're looking at the minutiae of this chapter, I might as well remind people that there is a mistake in NEW SUN involving this exchange. Vodalus definitely gave the pist…
06 Sep 2006, 06:34
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Yeah, that theory was put forth some years ago. It's one of those theories that is so neat it *ought* to be true. But it can't be. Severian and his pals were swimming in the Gyoll…
05 Sep 2006, 19:52
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I ain't takin' sides, just being a stickler. <g> The day Severian almost drowned was the last day of the year on which it was still warm enough to swim in the Gyoll. The weather t…
05 Sep 2006, 19:00
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There is not the least hint in the text that the Old Autarch was absent from Urth for any significant length of time, whether measured subjectively or objectively. Whether he was i…
30 Aug 2006, 19:59
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Rex Lycanthrosaurus quoted: "The dead Autarch, whose face I had seen in scarlet ruin a few moments before, now lived again. My eyes and hands were his, I knew the work of the hive…
30 Aug 2006, 04:09
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Worse, she, at least, was still alive ten years after the antechamber scene, when Sev was writing his manuscript. He ordered her brought to him while he was writing just before lea…
29 Aug 2006, 06:35
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Last night, you said it was "Verus." <g> Anyway, Severian specifically used the word "unmanned" to describe what happened to his predecessor. (URTH, 153) -Roy…
29 Aug 2006, 05:57
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She did take over at times, notably when Sev and the autarch were on the doomed flier. In fact, the autarch pulled a gun on her/him when it happened. That would have been a good ti…
28 Aug 2006, 05:47
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Note: In this post, "Old Autarch" refers to Severian's immediate predecessor. As Tony said, Appian has been accepted as the name of the Old Autarch for a long time by many people.…
28 Aug 2006, 05:08
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Yeah, that's a mistake. You are right about his not having made such a reference directly in the text of the "Catherine" chapter. Rather, he made the limping reference in Note #4 …
27 Aug 2006, 07:35
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I agree that the passage, as it appears in print, is clumsy. It bothered Borski, as it bothered you. It bothers me. I don't know if the fault is Wolfe's or the printer's or even th…
25 Aug 2006, 05:46
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Dan'l asks: Appian isn't mentioned by name in NEW SUN. The name is used in the related short story "The Cat", in ENDANGERED SPECIES. (p.-215, paperback) -Roy…
25 Aug 2006, 04:32
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Severian doesn't have Ymar's memories. The only more-or-less intact memories he acquired came from the directly-ingested flesh (plus analeptic) of Thecla and Appian. The chain of a…
24 Aug 2006, 05:23
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The passage you refer to is on page 284, chapter XL, of URTH. It is one of those that can be, evidently, interpreted more than one way. "When I spoke to Tzadkiel beside the brook,…
23 Aug 2006, 17:38
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My old _Webster's_ defines "chatelaine" this way: "1. the lady of a castle; mistress of a chateau." "Chateau" is defined as: "1. a French feudal castle. 2. a large country house, e…
22 Aug 2006, 05:47
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Then you won't agree with Wright's ATTENDING DAEDALUS. <g> The "Ice Future" would take a long time to come about. But no matter what happened to Urth, mankind had already spread, …
21 Aug 2006, 06:03
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Not so. He left Inire in charge. (URTH, 239, chapter XXXIV, 3rd paragraph) I assume that it was also Inire. He need not have been gone any significant amount of time at all, what…
21 Aug 2006, 05:42
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At the root of this family tree is the transformation of an old man into an old woman. I can see no textual justification for such a change of gender. In any event, a review of th…
17 Aug 2006, 04:02
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Really? Unless otherwise specified, when I give page numbers they are for the original edition, which is usually the hardback; otherwise I indicate the chapter. The book in questio…
10 Aug 2006, 06:43
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The statement is one page earlier than the other quotes I gave from chapter XXXIV in CITADEL. ------------------------------------------ "Just as a flower blooms, throws down i…
10 Aug 2006, 04:45
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---------------------------------------------------- "These men encountered many beings on other worlds who had intelligence to some degree, or at least the potential for inte…
09 Aug 2006, 05:24
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-------------------------------------------- Wherever did you get the idea that the marriage was celibate? But the bigger problem I have with this theory is carrying the Genesis …
08 Aug 2006, 21:02
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b sharp wrote: [snip] one way or another. Freezing it would do the job (and they would evacuate the remaining humans, Master Ash says). Urth would be pure and lifeless. But Seve…
08 Aug 2006, 07:00
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Jeff is right about the man-apes of the treasure mine being the autarch's to command -- see the first page of chapter XXXI in CITADEL. Am I reading you right? Are you seriously su…
24 Jul 2006, 05:04
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Page 267. This line immediately follows the biblical quote: "Its words show plainly how much wiser the peoples of ages long past were than we are now; not for nothing is that book…
23 Jul 2006, 18:22
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[snip] There are other Earth books quoted in the Urth Cycle. Iirc, someone, somewhere, has listed them. Mantis mentions the line from Marlowe's FAUSTUS (CLAW, chapter XXVIII) in t…
23 Jul 2006, 04:48
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Are you having some "senior moments" a tad early? <g> Or you just don't accept Ouen as Sev's father? Dorcas wasn't Sev's grandmother? -Roy…
22 Jul 2006, 02:16
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The images above the door, for one thing. If they represent Tzadkiel's Ship, the White Fountain and the Claw, they had no meaning before Typhon's era. The cult of the Conciliator d…
09 Jul 2006, 21:23
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The body of strangled Apu came back to life when the first light from the White Fountain reached Urth, so we don't really know what may have happened to it after Sev used the Corri…
08 Jul 2006, 05:46
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The clues about the mausoleum are few and scattered. The image of the man on the funeral bronze (we don't even know which coffin, if any, it may have been associated with) was said…
06 Jul 2006, 07:26
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Last year there was some debate about whether or not the mausoleum where Cilinia was buried was the same mausoleum where Severian played as a boy. They are *not* the same, and I ca…
03 Jul 2006, 23:51
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You got that right. My feelings, exactly. -Roy…
03 Jul 2006, 21:27
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He is working, if intermittently, on an expanded edition. See here for more info. http://www.siriusfiction.com/ -Roy…
12 Jun 2006, 17:37
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Then Uh, no, the assassin didn't have a mask of any kind. And Severian specifically mentions seeing the guy's face as it reanimated. The assassin had a batardeau, which is a large…
31 May 2006, 22:43
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You are quite welcome. While I'm thinking about it, there is another small matter you might want to consider regarding your "Naming Rule 2a". You and Domnina and Pelagia and Pega.…
31 May 2006, 04:32
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bsharp wrote: [snip] --------------------------------------------------------- Then, for the first time since I had been in the house, the old man spoke. "Becan, come over here! I…
30 May 2006, 19:51
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The many references made to the Increate in the Urth Cycle leave little room to doubt that Increate means God, as, for example, Dan'l uses the word God. Severian, at least, believe…
29 May 2006, 19:08
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[snip] [snip] Well, which is it? It can't be both ways. If confinement forces a shapeshifter into true form, why didn't Hethor immediately turn back into a slug (or whatever) whe…
29 May 2006, 03:57
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Bsharp is right about that; it was Zak who was the false Epitome. (URTH, 123) So you're a bully, huh? I wonder what that makes me. Well, I've been in worse company. <G> -Roy…
29 May 2006, 03:54
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Bsharp wrote a well crafted little essay that I almost wish I didn't have to take issue with. 5HC may have taken place in Urth's past, but if so it was a very distant past and for…
28 May 2006, 20:13
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I've waited nearly five years for this subject to come up on its own. Now that it has, I want to get something off my chest. My florigraphy post was well received; I don't recall …
27 May 2006, 01:23
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Iirc, there were aliens serving as crewmen on other decks of Tzadkiel's ship. But the most obvious groups are all those beings who were manipulated by the Hieros to engineer the Hi…
27 May 2006, 01:18
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I take that back; Tzadkiel could do it. -Roy…
27 May 2006, 01:13
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