Subject: (urth) More concerning the manuscript of the BOTNS

From: CRCulver <crculver at aol.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 16:08:21 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Friends,

     After careful study of the BOTNS appendices, I now concur with Mr.
Driussi's opinion that Wolfe did more than simply translate a single
manuscript.
     In _Lictor_'s appendix "A Note on Provincial Administration," Wolfe
begins the second paragraph with "At the period of the manuscripts..." Notice
that manuscripts is here in the plural. 
     _Citadel_'s appendix says much the same thing. It begins with "Nowhere
are the manuscripts of the Book of the New Sun more obscure..." Here, we have
the plural again. The plural is used a few more times in this appendix, in
paragraph 8.
     We know of two manuscripts. Both written by Severian, one was placed in
Master Ultan's Library (_Citadel_, XXXVIII, paragraph 3), and the second was
placed in a lead coffer and set adrift the seas of space and time (ibid., and
also in _Urth_).
     Perhaps more copies were made, so that "manuscripts" is especially
plural.

Now for my question:

Is the copy of the BOTNS which is given to Thecla in her cell Severian's
first manuscript, or a copy? (I don't know if we have a definite answer to
this).

     I have many more questions concerning manuscripts, but these will wait
until a future mailing.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html
------------------------------------------------
"Ignorance, that light of fools steers a wayward path"
-Brendan Perry