Gene Wolfe: Another New Sun question

Greg Slade · 24 Jun 1994, 08:21 · from sf-lovers.1994.mbox

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From: gslade at yvr.cyberstore.ca (Greg Slade)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe: Another New Sun question
Date: 24 Jun 94 08:21:28 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v19-516-4 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V19 #516
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-19b

> SPOILERS HO!
>
> Now my question: Is Severian's interpretation correct?  It seems to me
> just as likely that with all of the time travel going on in the series,
> it might just be the case that a dead Miles provided the raw materials
> for Jonas' "patch job," and that Severian has it completely backwards.

Egad.  After all my bad-mouthing of Wolfe, a twist that never even occurred
to me: not a RE-incarnation, but a PRE-incarnation, if you will.  I had
wondered if Severian had Jonas in mind, but that thread never seemed to go
anywhere, so I didn't pursue it.  But turning it on its head does make a
fiendish kind of sense, if you write off Jonas' [INSERT AUSTRIAN ACCENT
HERE] "I'll be back" as a red herring.

Darn, darn, darn.  Now I'm going to have to read the whole five books much
more seriously, just like everybody told me.

But I *still* think that "Go read some Star Trek novels" crack was a low
blow...

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