Gene Wolfe's New Sun stuff

Dani Zweig · 05 Oct 1992, 05:41 · from sf-lovers.1992.mbox

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From: dani at netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe's New Sun stuff
Date: 5 Oct 92 05:41:25 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v17-521-9 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V17 #521
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-17b

mbowman at andromeda.rutgers.edu (Michael Bowman):
>...Dorcas is Severian's GRANDmother, not his mother.  He thinks that the
>waiter is her son (and hence Severian's father) and that the old man is
>her husband (and Severian's grandfather).  His question was: who is
>Severian's mother?  His answer is that it was the Autarch.

Nothing reading the book wouldn't cure.  Dorcas is Severian's grandmother.
She died about forty years earlier, giving birth to Ouen, the waiter.  Ouen
never married, but did have several lovers.  One of those, Catherine, who
was given to the torturers, was Severian's mother.  The Autarch was a
eunuch.  Most of the details are brought out near the end of "Citadel of
the Autarch".

Dani Zweig

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