Is Severian A Real Person?

Lee Berman · 01 Aug 2010, 12:58 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2010 08:58:35 -0400
Subject: (urth) Is Severian A Real Person?
Message-ID: <SNT123-W423593753D998442152F4FCFAC0 at phx.gbl>

>brunians- The only difference between Severian and you and I is that he has a
>different Author

I presume the Author of you and I is to be considered of an intelligence too vast,
penetrating, universal, inhuman and mysterious to ever be comprehended by us.

How true is that of the intelligence of the author of Severian?

>Gurloes is a tragic and interesting figure.
>He is father to Severian in a way that Palaemon is not.

I agree. There are places in Wolfe's work where I am sure he is referring to his
own wife and children in addition to his fictional characters. The part where he
describes Master Gurloes as being tragic, a complex man trying to appear simple,
someone who eats too much and not often enough, seems to be one of those sort of
places.

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