Severian's Phraseology...

Son of Witz · 04 Dec 2010, 05:19 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 21:19:26 -0800
Subject: (urth) Severian's Phraseology...
In-Reply-To: <09971650-9298-47D5-A890-6DDE0D7901ED at liftingfaces.com>
References: <09971650-9298-47D5-A890-6DDE0D7901ED at liftingfaces.com>
Message-ID: <77F70823-FDB6-4968-9E4A-8145621C6CE8 at butcherbaker.org>

On Dec 3, 2010, at 8:42 PM, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote:

> Anyone else wonder why Severian as Autarch consistently refers to the collective "we" when talking to others?
> 
> "Our memories never fade."
> 
> "We are going to keep this."
> 
> etc.
> 
> And yet, Severian the Narrator, never does this.
> 
> Anyone else find this peculiar?
> 
> ...ryan
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List

Interesting.
I hadn't thought of that.
I guess that Severian plays the Autarch as he should, using the Royal "We" befitting the position (with delicious irony). But when he is writing his Memoir, it is Severian's story, and he minimizes any discussion of his time as Autarch.  Come to think of it, this is a compelling character trait. Of all the things in his life, he doesn't relish in having obtained the highest position a person could hope to attain.  It's interesting that Wolfe doesn't write those stories, when an Autarch Severian book would sell really well.

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