Wolfe as Cyby

Robert Borski · 05 Nov 1999, 17:16 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at coredcs.com>
Subject: (urth) Re: Wolfe as Cyby
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 17:16:32
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0395 at digest.urth.net>
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<And someone (I forget who) on here has pointed out that Cyby is described
as roughly what Wolfe might have looked at when he wrote BOTNS, so we have
Wolfe as the humble apprentice to the master of the archives.>

Meant to cover this the first time it came up.

Wolfe as Cyby is an interesting notion, with a fair amount of resonance
given the Borges-Ultan connection.

But I don't think it's right.

Rather, I think Wolfe first makes his cameo in SHADOW, then reprises it in
CITADEL. But only in the latter does Severian provide the essential
physical description:

"I never really looked at him on that afternoon when he had carried in a
tray for Dorcas, Agia, and me. I did so now. He was a balding man about as
tall as Drotte, thin and somehow pinched; his eyes were deep blue, and
there was a delicacy to the molding of his eyes and mouth I recognized at
once." (303)

The mystery figure here, of course, is Ouen, Severian's father. Other than
the thinness, I believe it still describes how GW looks.

Moreover, as I've pointed out before (and as alga subsequently documented),
the name Ouen is the Welsh form of Eugene.

Ouen as Gene Wolfe--the father of Severian. But then we've always known
that, haven't we?

Robert Borski

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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