Meta-fictions

Matthew Groves · 02 Jan 2009, 05:22 · from 2009-January.txt.gz

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From: matthewalangroves at gmail.com (Matthew Groves)
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 23:22:04 -0600
Subject: (urth) Meta-fictions
In-Reply-To: <978440.91079.qm at web37605.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <mailman.1.1230761283.28422.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
	<495C2F5D.6060300 at verizon.net>
	<978440.91079.qm at web37605.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <39ed084f0901012122y767e94eerc555894147244a14 at mail.gmail.com>

I don't have a good answer for you.  I don't think the "Gene Wolfe" persona
plays a very large role in TBotNS.  I think that, as you say, he just gave
up the pretense.  Probably because another pers?nal layer -- a translator --
would have distracted from the issues of identity he was raising with
Horn/Silk, which have become more central in TBotSS than was the case with
Severian/Thecla in TBotNS.  Wolfe does insert himself into the text of
"Horn's Book" as "a man in Urbasecundus" (i.e., Second City -- Chicago) "who
was said to have produced a similar book" (OBW 51).

On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 8:32 PM, Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Just about done with Short Sun (again), but endings have me thinking again
> about the "Appendices" in New Sun and their absence in Long/Short. Has there
> been any speculation on the role of "Gene Wolfe" (the "translator" who got
> his hands on Severian's manuscript) with Long/Short Sun or even (if they're
> distinct in the end) _The Book of Silk_ and _The Book of Horn_?
>
> Of course, although we get metafiction in both, we don't get the same type
> of metafiction. Horn writing long sun and Hide/Horn/wives writing _The Book
> of Horn_ is one thing...but what is the relation of these later compositors
> to "Gene Wolfe" in New Sun? Any significance to their difference? Or did he
> just give up the pretense?
>
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