Gene Wolfe's New Sun stuff

Dan'l DanehyOakes · 02 Oct 1992, 19:10 · from sf-lovers.1992.mbox

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From: djdaneh at pbhyc.pacbell.com (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe's New Sun stuff
Date: 2 Oct 92 19:10:46 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v17-515-4 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V17 #515
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-17b

Significant (in both senses) SPOILERS ahead:

joak at ocf.berkeley.edu (Jonathan A. Kung) writes:

>1. Who Severian's mother is.  I have a hunch that's she's Dorcas,
>   tortured by the Guild for some reason, so they took Severian in.

That would seem to be the case.  She's certainly his mother, and, given how
the Guild acquires 'prentices, the other is a logical deduction: but logic
does not always seem to apply.

Gene _will_ have his little mysteries (like the name of the narrator in THE
FIFTH HEAD. . .: when I figured _that_ one out, I laughed for at least five
minutes.)

>2.  Who that servant that ran away after passing the warning note in the
>    inn by the Sanguinary Fields is.  Is he the one that married Dorcas at
>    the end?

I don't believe so, no.  I believe he's her grandson.

>3.  That old man Dorcas was mourning at the end of the Book - was that
>    her husband?

Most likely... which would make him Severian's father, no?

>4.  That business with the aliens from the other universe - in which
>    universe does Book take place, and in which ones does Urth take place,
>    and how are they related.

They all take place in the same Universe (except the parts of URTH that
take place in Heaven): and it is either the distant future or the distant
past of our world.  Remember the "painting" of the "warrior": it's Neil
Armstrong on the Moon.

>5.  The first Claw that Severian got - was it really "magical"?  Or did
>    it glow because of previous contact with the past Severian?  Or did it
>    glow because Severian wanted it to?

Yes.

Gee, that's not helpful, is it?

Okay: Severian *is* the New Sun, or at least *a* New Sun.  The past
Severian is/was the present Severian, and both are/were the Conciliator, at
least briefly.  The Claw has no real significance in itself, but (like all
symbols) has a great deal of significance to those who invest it therewith.

>6.  Why I always fell asleep after reading every hundred pages or so.

For the same reason you would tend to fall asleep if you tried to eat an
entire chocolate truffle cake at once: too rich, too much.  Overload.
Brain shutdown.

>7.  Is Severian the first Autarch with his kind of memory?  I had at first
>    thought that each Autarch had perfect memory, and each one would wait
>    until the next person with perfect memory came along, and then groom
>    him for the Autarchy.

There's no particular reason to believe that other Autarchs have had
Severian's peculiar memory.  (BTW, note that Severian's memory is not as
perfect as he believes it to be.  There are hints about this.)

>8.  Book takes place in the VERY far future, right?

Right.  Or maybe the VERY distant past.  Or both.

>9.  Was the Citadel originally a "space ship"?  There were some references
>    to "cabins" for the journeyman with "portholes", and Severian once
>    says, I think, how wonderful it would be if the tower just blasted off
>    into space like it was meant to.

The Citadel was not *a* spaceship.  The individual *towers* were, and may
well still be, space ships.

>10. What happened during the time between Shadow, I think, and the next
>    part, at the Wall, that separated Severian and Jonas from the rest?

Read CLAW more carefully.  It's in there.

>11. Did that guy who helped Severian and A-wozname and Dorcas out in the
>    lake of the dead (or whatever it was called) die in that episode at
>    the end of one of the books with the witches and Apu- Punchau?

Yes.  Or maybe that should be "maybe."

>12. What the HELL is the deal with Apu-Punchau?  I don't think I can get
>    it straight without a bit of help...

Try the afterword to URTH; that will help a great deal.

>13. Typhon - why didn't he remember Severian's face from before and kill
>    him when he had the chance the second time (for Typhon) they met?

He does and he does.  In his own inimitable way.

>14. What was the deal with the fights in space on the ship that sailed
>    between universes?  I was kind of unclear on this (along with
>    everything else I'm asking about).

So was Severian, and he's your only source of information.  Take it as it
is.

>15. Whose crypt does Severian lie in?  It's from one of his past lives,
>    right?

What past lives?  They're all one.  Follow the subjective time lines...

>16. Severian dies several times, but is cloned by the Hierogrammates,
>    or something, right?

No.

>17. Terminus Est was originally the property of that one guard in the
>    past, right?

I hadn't thought of that.  Good reason for me to re-read these...

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

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