Severian = Conciliator hint in BOTNS

Tony Ellis · 30 Jun 1998, 16:05 · from urth-v0015.mbox · original

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From: tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk (Tony Ellis)
Subject: Re: Re: (urth) Severian = Conciliator hint in BOTNS
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 17:05:19 +0100
Message-ID: <urth-v0015-0041 at digest.urth.net>
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Rostrum wrote:=20
> So far, the parallelism of the titles seems like the most concrete clue to
> Severian's destiny.  But even with that, I can see imagining that the
> title of CLAW refers to Severian following in the footsteps of the
> Conciliator, doing deeds like his, rather than thinking Severian would
> eventually go back and be the Conciliator.=20

I can clearly remember appreciating that Severian was both Conciliator
and New Sun long before URTH was even published. For me, all the
conclusive evidence was in the chapter entitled "The Key to the
Universe", which effectively says that in the future Severian "already
has" brought the New Sun, and that he will acquire the power to walk the
corridors of time.

It may have helped that I have never distinguished between New Sun and
Conciliator. For me they were always two different names for the same
thing: the Conciliator was the New Sun in the past, the New Sun was the
Conciliator come again.

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