Hints about Conciliator from volume names

John Moar · 22 Jun 1998, 14:11 · from urth-v0014.mbox · original

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From: John Moar <jmoar at zetnet.co.uk>
Subject: (urth) Hints about Conciliator from volume names
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 98 15:11:23 +0100
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>
>On Fri, 19 Jun 1998, adam louis stephanides wrote:
>
>> > Is it certain, for instance, in the
>> > first four books that Severian himself will one day become the
>> > Conciliator?
>>=20
>> I would say there is no hint in the first four books that Severian
>> was/will become the Conciliator.  But I could be wrong.
>
>Of course I'm citation-less here, but I think that you are wrong.  IIRC,
>there are at least a few clues vaguely scattered throughout BotNS that
>Severian maybe, just maybe is the Conciliator.  The most obvious is the
>fact that the we discover that his powers don't come from the Claw of the
>Conciliator but from himself.  These powers (healing people) are the same
>as those attributed to the Conciliator.  In addition, the Conciliator is
>also referred to as the New Sun.  We are certainly led to believe that
>Severian will bring the New Sun, which is another link.

Just a thought about how the titles of tBotNS volumes might imply that=20
Severian is the Conciliator.

Now, it is obvious that Severian is a torturer, a lictor and an autarch -=20
each of which appears as the second noun of the title on one of the=20
volumes. So, this might suggest that this is part of the title format.=20
But, in this case, _Claw_ doesn't fit.

However, if Severian is the Conciliator, then there is a consistent=20
pattern of titles. Furthermore, it might mean he _always has been_ the=20
Conciliator (since he performs the functions of the title in the other=20
books, but is no more the Conciliator in _Claw_ than anywhere else before=20
_Urth_)

>I think there may be other clues but I couldn't say off hand.
>
>And of course, all this is much more "obvious" (as much as anything by
>Wolfe is obvious) after reading UotNS because you're suddenly looking for
>clues (and possibly finding ones that aren't really there).
>
>
>-Dave

--
James Moar

"...it represents for me all that monomaniacal fabric of argument, so
tightly woven that not even the tiniest objection or spark of light can
escape its net, in which human minds become enmeshed whenever the
subject is one in which no appeal to fact is possible" - _Sword_, Ch. 38

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