a lurker asks a question

James Wynn · 30 Sep 2008, 12:19 · from 2008-September.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:19:04 -0500
Subject: (urth) a lurker asks a question
References: <620232.4000.qm at web59612.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <9810F13BE98C4150848CCF5358CDC460@GATEWAY>

>Matt asks:
>I love this scene, but other than the need for Severian to get the books for Thecla, 
>I'm wondering what the Point is...What does this chapter contribute to the story?
>...What am I missing?  Surely there's more to it than that.

When people mention to me that they feel something is going on under the floorboards in this scene, I always direct them to this clause:

"...quite suddenly I felt that he and I were dead, and the darkness surrounding us was grave soil presing in about our eyes..."

There is something being declared here in a Lupean way -- narratively or character development-wise -- but I'll be danged if I know what it is.

J
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matt Teel 
  To: urth at lists.urth.net 
  Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 10:34 AM
  Subject: (urth) a lurker asks a question


        Hello all.  I'm emerging from underneath my rock to ask a question.  

        I've read and re-read and re-re-read Book of the New Sun, and part of the fun is figuring out how each chapter, each scene, contributes to the whole.  That's hardest with the earlier chapters, I find, and particularly with Chapter VI: The Master of the Curators.  

        Thanks.

        Matt 




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