DROTTE VS. ROCHE

Bill Carmichael · 18 Oct 1999, 08:50 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Bill Carmichael <bcarmichael1 at Home.com>
Subject: (urth) DROTTE VS. ROCHE
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 08:50:48
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0209 at digest.urth.net>
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Hello, all -
	Former lurker here, and I have a question that's been bugging me for about=
 fifteen years, now.  On the very first page of SOTT, Severian says:
	"I would have hidden, but Roche held me, saying, 'Wait, I see pikes'".
And then, just a few paragraphs later:
	"...but they had pikes, as Drotte had said,..."

My question is, what's going on here? Who actually commented on the peasant=
s being armed?=20

My apologies if this particular bit of apparent narrative contradiction has=
 been discussed and dispensed with previously, but does anybody have any in=
sight into why this error appears in the text? I believe the error to be in=
tentional, because it shows up both in my old beat-to-hell paperpack copy, =
and in my nice new trade pb copy.  And also because I've come to expect tha=
t Wolfe has a reason for just about everything in the bood.  I'm not sure e=
xactly how to evaluate it.  Is this just Wolfe's first signal to us that Se=
verian isn't a perfectly reliable narrator, claims to perfect recall not wi=
thstanding?

And what exactly would be the implications of Severian being an unreliable =
narrator, anyhow?

Interested in hearing everybody's thoughts.

Ipsifendus

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