(no subject)
The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 14 Jul 2003
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4092

Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright
in each message remains with the person who wrote it.

Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original
archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than
retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.

==============================================================================

Andrew Bollen — 14 Jul 2003, 02:51

> Crush responds:
> As a believer that the discrepancies are intentional, I see their
> triviality
> as exemplary of Wolfe's subtlety in dealing with an unreliable narrator.

If

> the discrepancies had been of weight, then they would have looked to be
> most
> likely intentional on Severian's part -- i.e. *lies". Since they are
> trivial, they can only be errors in memory (assuming they aren't typos).

Fair point. But the Marble/Mint error you mention IMO supports my position.
That was the same kind of thing as Roy raised - Drotte-Roche etc - and
arguably bigger, since Drotte & Roche were less significant characters than
the Mayteras. As you say, the best way to resolve it would be if GW were to
comment, but going by history, some people might just assume he's being
enigmatic or prevaricating, no matter what he says :).

Also - what would be the narrative point of Sev having a false belief in his
own perfect memory? If the intention were to cast ambiguity over everything
he says, then it seems too weak to have only examples of fairly trivial
recollection errors - does it matter to the story if he actually doesn't
have perfect memory for detail; would it really cast doubt on his account of
larger things? I'd expect there to be at least one substantial example, even
if it were Wolfishly hidden & scattered in 5 holographic parts over 3
volumes.

Maybe there is!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------