Just finished "Shadow of the Torturer"...confused as hell.

daryl · 07 Apr 1998, 06:35 · from sf-lovers.1998.mbox

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From: daryl at freenet.edmonton.ab.ca ()
Subject: Re: Just finished "Shadow of the Torturer"...confused as hell.
Date: 7 Apr 1998 06:35:30 GMT
Message-ID: <sflovers-v23-63-5 at digest.sf-lovers>
X-Digest-Issue: SF-LOVERS Digest V23 #63
X-Urthmirror-Source: https://archive.org/details/sf-lovers-digest-vol-23

>To those who've read the entire Book of the New Sun: does it get better
>than this or can I expect to be confused all through the series?

   The narrator suffers from an inability to forget. That will necessarily
lead to the inclusion of a lot of extraneous detail (from an adventure-saga
perspective) because Severian has not had the experience of trying to
decide what is important enough to remember.

   My advice: go with the flow. Keep an open mind, and the current will
take you where you want to go. All things come to he who waits.
   Re: symbolism, don't bother. It takes place in a future so far removed
from the present that our cultural context is well-nigh irrelevant.
   I'd pay more attention to the questions raised by such concepts as that
of a professional torturer with a high standard of ethics, or by Severian's
conflicting loyalties.

   Besides, TSotT is just the first volume in a _very_ long novel
[novelissimo?], so you have a ways to go. Half the fun (or more) is in the
journey; the destination is the reason for the telling, but not the point
of the reading. Can't be more clear without spoiling it for you.

   And no, sf doesn't get better than this. If you feel that you are in
over your head, maybe wait a couple years until you have some more life
experience [I am assuming that you are relatively young] that will give you
some insight into Severian's dilemmae.

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