Father Inire

Ryan Dunn · 13 Oct 2011, 14:39 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: ryan at liftingfaces.com (Ryan Dunn)
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:39:44 -0400
Subject: (urth) Father Inire
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W26BA2700E20B612C1C45F6CFE00 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W26BA2700E20B612C1C45F6CFE00 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <9BAB169A-C833-479B-B9FB-B6989EC18DDB at liftingfaces.com>

On Oct 13, 2011, at 10:16 AM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Of course part of the reason is Wolfe's literary trope of creating mystery via an unreliable 
> narrator. But I would hope there is also a plot purpose to Severian's unreliable reporting 
> to us and I think there is.

But Lee, as with the moon man painting, Severian the Autarch may not even know what it was. Same goes for his encounters with people he should recognize.

However, we do see that in this memoir, Severian does indeed play the detective. When he recognizes the badger, when he realizes he is in a time loop and not the first Severian, when he realizes the claw as the thorn from back when.

Just because he doesn't solve all of the riddles and mysteries about him doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to.

I would imagine and hope Wolfe wanted us to find things Severian missed or misinterpreted, since that is the fun of following a flawed narrator, we can have our "Ah, HA!" moments and pay ourselves on the back. Moments where we can think, "No, dummy, don't you SEE!?"

Of course it is Wolfe who holds the cards and smirks while we have those moments, even if we sometimes think we do. Severian certainly does not. That is the genius of Wolfe's writing.

...ryan

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