The Severian Behind Curtain #3

brunians at brunians.org · 15 Jun 2008, 18:39 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:39:56 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: (urth) The Severian Behind Curtain #3
In-Reply-To: <BLU111-W32B90228BFAC6060001502EEAE0 at phx.gbl>
References: <BLU111-W32B90228BFAC6060001502EEAE0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <14189.67.142.130.28.1213555196.squirrel at brunians.org>

Severian drowns in the river Gyoll.

Everything else that happens in BOTNS and UOTNS are hallucinations that he
undergoes while dying.



.


> What a fascinating discussion. I have never really understood exactly how
> Juturna's intervention and the Sev1/2/N divergence worked (about a decade
> ago my wild and unsubstantiated theory that Severian had drowned and
> unknowingly self-resurrected via the "Claw" was robustly, and rightly,
> criticised by this forum).
>
> On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:09:50 -0500 Adam Thornton adam at io.com wrote:
>
>>I'd like to propose that every character in the entire saga is actually
>> some iteration of Severian.
> This, though not meant seriously, is interesting and inventive. It reminds
> me (warning: off topic) of Richard Feynman's comment in his lecture
> accepting his Nobel Prize for Physics (see
> http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html)
> that "I received a telephone call one day at the graduate college at
> Princeton from Professor Wheeler, in which he said, "Feynman, I know why
> all electrons have the same charge and the same mass" "Why?" "Because,
> they are all the same electron!". The idea being that a single electron
> bounces back and forth from the Big Bang to the Big Crunch, becoming a
> positron going backwards in time when it "bounces".
>
> Or maybe not.
>
> ...but the thing that most puzzles me about Sev1/2/N is that it appears so
> unclear in what way(s) the interested factions actually benefit or lose
> out when SevN brings the New Sun. Is this because Wolfe is commenting on
> the uncertain effects of political machinations (and thus, by implication,
> that their most important effect is on the egos of the machinators)? Or
> was it supposed to be clear whether the NS was a happy or unhappy ending
> (for whomever) and Wolfe didn't really succeed in explaining this? (As
> Dave Tallman seems to be suggesting)?
>
> newt
>
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