Gene Wolfe, Severian, and Latro

Jim Gardner · 29 Nov 1988, 21:30 · from sf-lovers.1988.mbox

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From: jagardner at watmath.waterloo.edu (Jim Gardner)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe, Severian, and Latro
Date: 29 Nov 88 21:30:31 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v13-337-11 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V13 #337
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-13

brian at alzabo.UUCP (Brian Hilchie) writes:
>Does anyone share my suspicion that Latro (from SofM) and Severian (_The
>Book of the New Sun_ and TUofNS) are the same person?

To me, it's pretty clear that Soldier of the Mist is a "book-end" to the
Book of the New Sun.  In other words, Wolfe got SotM by reversing most of
BotNS.  For example, Severian remembers everything while Latro remembers
nothing. While everything in New Sun was strange and aged and decadent (to
a greater or lesser extent), everything in SotM is very simple and "pure":
for example, cities have names like "Truth".

There is a strong parallelism between Severian's companions and Latro's:
the young innocent woman; the old sorceror/sorceress who is not what (s)he
seems; the giant; and so on.  I'm afraid it's been a long time since I read
SotM, and it hasn't stuck in my memory as well as BotNS; but I remember
saying "Aha!" over and over again as familiar incidents from BotNS popped
up in SotM, rearranged or reversed.

Jim Gardner
University of Waterloo

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