Subject: (urth) Do the Hierogrammates *care* about the Megatherians

From: Andrew Mason <andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 22:16:33 +0000

David Stockhoff wrote:

> -I didn't know to take Dr Talos' play seriously the first time I read
> TBOTNS.

No, I don't think anyone did. But we may wonder whether this
represents actual concealment within the world of BOTNS, or whether
it's just Wolfe's tendency to make things less clear than they might
be (and then be surprised when people don't get it).

We know, now, that Dr Talos's play was based on Canog's book, which
was based on Severian's own testimony. So he, at least, was not trying
to conceal anything.

There's also another passage in _Urth_ that bears on this. Apheta says
that the people of Urth have a choice between slow death, and death
followed by rebirth. Severian says that he has known this since
childhood. Gunnie says 'We didn't', but then adds 'In religion - but
no one took any notice of that' (or words to that effect). So I think
the destructive effect of the New Sun was known, in the sense that it
was not deliberately concealed, but, as with many things, people at
large took no notice of it. (One might also mention the Conciliator's
title of 'Black Sun', and Dorcas's saying she has read some terrible
things about him.)