Clute's Interpretation of Severian Becoming the Autarch

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 12 Jul 2007, 02:35 · from 2007-July.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:35:46 -0700
Subject: (urth) Clute's Interpretation of Severian Becoming the Autarch
In-Reply-To: <ca4bdd8f0707111434q1d039762u47e32f1760165438 at mail.gmail.com>
References: <ca4bdd8f0707111434q1d039762u47e32f1760165438 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1f7617370707111935x7823b318k5b8987f75ab3e2d6 at mail.gmail.com>

Adam,

I don't see there anything about murder. Clute does say that Sev
is concealing (something important about) how he came to be
the Autarch, but, really, what he does do -- cut the old Autarch's
skull open and eat his brains -- seems quite bad enough.

--Dan'l

On 7/11/07, E <euth82 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
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http://www.danehyoakes.com
Soon, where Toon Town once stood will be a string of gas stations,
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salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards
reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful.

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