Gate of Nessus and UL
The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 27 Jul 2000
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2323

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Roy C. Lackey — 27 Jul 2000, 02:31

> alga wrote:
> Wrote Nigel:

> > As to what happens to Severian at and immediately after his passage
> > through the gate of Nessus, well, you do gradually get bits and pieces of
> > the story, a detail here and there throughout the length of TCotC. I'm
> > rereading the whole thing very slowly as part of the research for my
> > paper for the symposium at the end of August. Will you be there?

> Nigel, after the symposium will you post your paper? Or at least email
> it to interested people like me, and I bet quite a few others?
> -alga

    Seconded.

Nigel Price wrote (back on June 6):

> Greatly enjoyed reading all the articles and reviews, including those by
> Urth-list regulars Nick Gevers (Potto), Michael Andre-Driussi (Mantis) and
> Robert Borski (canis terribilis cum quinque capitibus). Very excited, too,
> at the news that Peter Wright is publishing a book of his studies on Wolfe
> next year, to be called "Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the
> Reader".  I admire the clear-sightedness of Peter's analysis of the Urth
> cycle no end, and enjoyed his review of The Book of the New Sun in Ultan's
> Library much as I enjoyed his previously published articles, but I'm still
> not sure that I agree with all the conclusions he draws from his analysis.
> To me, his reading of the Urth cycle seems overly deterministic, but I need
> to do an awful lot more work before I can - maybe - come up with a
> convincing counter-argument. (I'm working on it!) I would love to hear what
> others think of Peter's interpretation of Severian's narrative.

    Surprisingly, very little has been posted to either list about
Jonathan's first edition of Ultan's Library--doubly so because most of the
contributors belong to the Urth/Whorl lists. I could abide the silence no
longer, so I must echo Nigel's too-modest praise (too modest regarding his
own contribution). I enjoyed each of the pieces, whether I agreed with them
or not. Congratulations, one and all! I particularly wanted to mention Nick
Gevers' articles on LONG SUN, a series I thought left a lot to be desired.
Nick hasn't changed my mind about the books, but I found his insights
fascinating, none the less. The companion pieces were very well written; I
only wish EXODUS had been so.

    As for Peter Wright--where was he last year when I was pointing out that
Severian was an unreliable narrator? <g> I find little to argue with in the
essay and appreciate the psychological angle on why someone with an eidetic
memory can't be trusted to give a reliable account, even when they aren't
out-and-out lying or otherwise skirting the truth. As I have said here
before, Sev's biggest lies are the ones he doesn't tell, the glaring logical
lacunae that spawn so much speculation here, the questions he is in a
position to know the answers to but elects not to reveal. But I've argued
all this before and will await Nigel's rebuttal.

    Also, a belated thank you to alga for sending along her LB articles.

Roy

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