Clute's Interpretation of Severian Becoming the Autarch

E · 11 Jul 2007, 21:34 · from 2007-July.txt.gz

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From: euth82 at gmail.com (E)
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:34:35 -0400
Subject: (urth) Clute's Interpretation of Severian Becoming the Autarch
Message-ID: <ca4bdd8f0707111434q1d039762u47e32f1760165438 at mail.gmail.com>

Hello,

I was reading one of Clute's reviews
(http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue133/excess.html) and in it he mentions
that Severian is a liar, implying he assumes the role of Autarch in an
underhanded manner through murder.  Does anyone know what Clute's
exact argument is, and what evidence he uses to support it?  Because
if this is true then it really changes what I thought about the
story... I know Severian routinely lies or purposefully omits details,
so that does make him a "liar", but if he is completely lying about
over-taking the Autarchy, that makes him a much greater liar than I
imagined.

I have spent a good amount of time reading through these forums and
Google-searching for Clute's interpretation on this matter, but can't
find anything.  I have looked quite a while.  Also, unfortunately, my
library doesn't have copies of Clute's "Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction" or "Scores" works (although I'm not even sure if they would
be able to answer my question.)

Does anyone have any insight into this?

Best,

  - Adam

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