Hut/Ultan's Library/Catherine

b sharp · 06 Apr 2009, 20:07 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 16:07:26 -0400
Subject: (urth) Hut/Ultan's Library/Catherine
Message-ID: <COL109-W6FFEC8AFA0135B5451095D7840 at phx.gbl>

James wynn writes:

>At the time of this event, Severian had not eaten any corpse;
>so, why did he feel that he himself was dead? I suppose it is
>not absolutely required, but this pairing seems to imply they 
>were "were dead" for the same reason...
>whatever it was.

I could go with D. Stockhoff's rather direct explanation:

>Well, they were both underground in a musty place of great age,
>where data was literally entombed, like the dead. Where the knowledge
>of the historians that Ultan desires is also entombed; where the whole
>of Urth is entombed. Who wouldn't get a creepy feeling? The place is 
>symbolic of death.

but also,

I don't suppose all Wolfe's protagonists function as the author's
avatars but some do, and surely Severian. I can't help but see the
meeting of Severian and Ultan as part of a fantasy of Wolfe to meet
with Jorge Luis Borges. Two avatars feeling dead together in a book
could be the mirror image of two live guys meeting in the real world. 
Perhaps it wasn't just a fantasy and Wolfe really did meet Borges in 
his library in Buenos Aires and that S. American trip provided much 
of the inspiration for BotNS.

ah, I dunno...

-bsharp
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