hello, anyone want to talk BOTNS? If so - Jolenta and her Guild?

brunians at brunians.org · 30 May 2010, 02:00 · from 2010-May.txt.gz

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From: brunians at brunians.org (brunians at brunians.org)
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 22:00:23 -0400
Subject: (urth) hello,
 anyone want to talk BOTNS? If so - Jolenta and her Guild?
In-Reply-To: <4C01C289.1090308 at sky.com>
References: <4C01C289.1090308 at sky.com>
Message-ID: <3127d6e3aa214bf430474569b67be6e8.squirrel at brunians.org>

That's a real interesting idea.

.


> Hello? Is there anybody out there?
>
> Just about a third of the way through my fifth or sixth rereading of
> BOTNS and wondering if anyone has any insights to offer on a few things
> I never noticed before (there are always things one didn't notice
> before!).
>
> On this occasion - when Severian meets up with Dr. Talos's Players at
> Ctesiphon's Cross (even tho' he meant to do no such thing!) Jolenta at
> one point remarks to him regarding the Wall of Nessus that she could see
> it as a line of black on the northern horizon 'from the glass-roofed
> room *at the top of our tower*'.
>
> Now I've read a little more I am aware of the interpretation placed upon
> this by Robert Borski who extrapolates that Jolenta, whose original name
> we are never told, was possibly raised amongst the Witches and may
> indeed be Severian's lost twin sister. Whatever the truth of this, it's
> certainly clear that Jolenta has known a life where she dwelt in a tower
> high enough to view the Wall even from the midst of Nessus, and that in
> addition, like Severian himself, she once knew a fellowship close enough
> that even after some time, during which she has either left voluntarily
> or been ejected for some infraction, she (like Severian, again) still
> refers to her former comrades as 'us'; it is 'OUR tower'.
>
> However this does not afford proof that she was ever apprenticed to the
> Witches; whilst the Witches' Guild is the only one we are told of which
> is exclusively female, Severian is careful to tell us that most guilds
> (saving his own, that of the Beast-Masters and that of the Witches) do
> admit both sexes. So even if Jolenta does remember a childhood in a
> Guild Tower within the Citadel (and there's no suggestion that all
> Guilds have their headquarters in this area, whether within ship/Towers
> or not, so she could have been raised in a Tower outside the citadel, or
> even within some entirely different kind of structure which could none
> the less have qualified as a 'tower' and sported a glass roof of a
> different sort) there's no certainty that this was the tower of the
> Witches. She could have been an upholsterers' apprentice perhaps; or an
> apothecaries'.
>
> I wonder if anyone on the list has any views on the subject? Asking,
> because as someone who has read BOTNS several times it was really
> striking to me really to notice this phrase for the first time (I'm sure
> I've read it many times without taking in the possible implications).
>
> Apologies to all if this is a simple beginner's question and merely
> betrays that I haven't been following the fandom for some years - this
> is quite true, and I'm currently trying to catch up.
>
> cheers and thanks
>
> JD
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