Severian as a student

Roy C. Lackey · 03 Jun 2008, 05:34 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 00:34:22 -0500
Subject: (urth) Severian as a student
Message-ID: <002401c8c53b$7ddc6fc0$c2cd4a0c at rclackey.stic.net>

Dave Tallman wrote:
>Perhaps I am making an unjustified assumption, but I thought it was a
>given that the copy made on the time-traveling Ship was the only copy
>that Wolfe could have obtained and "translated." If the copy given to
>Ultan is the version we are reading, then my point is not valid.
>Severian could consult all the resources available to an Autarch to
>write the first one. If this is the second manuscript, it's too good in
>the level of detail and style to be the work of a person with an
>ordinary memory attempting to re-create the book they just wrote.

For purposes of this discussion, it doesn't matter which document Wolfe
translated. The text we have is all there is. The conceit is that, thanks to
Severian's vaunted memory, the copy he made is identical in content to the
original manuscript -- and we have no way of knowing otherwise.

>Even though it was written soon after the other one, it still gave
>Severian a second chance to notice "Hey, what I wrote here is
>inconsistent with what I wrote there."  The fact that it was rewritten
>within a short time makes the inconsistencies even more strange. His
>memory has to play tricks on him not only about the events themselves,
>but in his memory of writing about them.

We are talking about inconsistencies within the same document, not comparing
documents. When Sev relates some incident in his document, then has occasion
later in the document to make reference to the same incident, and the two
accounts are inconsistent, then obviously at least one mistake has been
made. It doesn't really matter whether Hildegrin or Thea received the gun
from Vodalus; neither used it. The only question is whether Wolfe or Sev
made the mistake.

If Sev ever had occasion to notice that he had contradicted himself, then he
had the opportunity to correct his account by amending it, either by
changing the first mention to agree with the second, or the other way
around. And we would never know that he had made a mistake of memory. He
takes such pains to insist that his memory is perfect that he would never
knowingly demonstrate that it wasn't.

The doeskin/manskin pouch thing is not as easily dismissed as most of the
other mistakes. Doeskin and manskin have very different connotations. It is
almost impossible for me to believe that Wolfe made that mistake. It is
almost equally difficult for me to believe that dear Dorcas would sew a
pouch made from human skin to house the most celebrated religious icon on
the planet.

-Roy

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