Death, Memory, Ghosts, Resurrection

Peter Stephenson · 22 Apr 1999, 09:49 · from urth-v0026.mbox · original

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From: Peter Stephenson <pws at ibmth.df.unipi.it>
Subject: Re: (urth) Death, Memory, Ghosts, Resurrection
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 11:49:38 +0200
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Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:
> In several essays and countless conversations, people have wondered "Why
> Severian? What qualifies him?"

Surely, at least to some extent, Severian is Everyman?  That may seem hard
to accept of a rather dour torturer with a perfect memory, but I think
Wolfe wants us to make the imaginative attempt.  It seems to me to make the
religious resonances stronger if Severian has no a priori claim to being
chosen.  Quite what `a priori' means in this chronological mess is another
matter, and this maybe a major spanner in the works of this theory:  he
can't be Everyman because he's inextricably bound in right from the start
with a very complex and particular web of causality.  So that carefully
cancels out this posting.

Yours in nullity,
corncrake

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