Five Severians

Lee · 16 Dec 2013, 15:48 · from 2013-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee)
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 10:48:13 -0500
Subject: (urth) Five Severians
Message-ID: <BLU175-W2411168E0A6AD4248F13D5CFD80 at phx.gbl>

>Michael Thayer: Druissi's eight Severians theory is a bit opaque.

I agree. Driussi is usually fairly circumspect in injecting his own
interpretations onto Wolfe. But now and then, as in this case, he 
demonstrates an ability to go off on his own tangent with almost Borskian
intrepidity.

Personally, I find the five coffins in the mausoleum to be impossible to
plausibly understand at just a narrative level. I find it to be most
essentially autobiographical in the manner of a puzzle in its referent, 
The Fifth Head of Cerberus.

I think most here are aware that Wolfe once (remarkably) admitted that the 
solution to the puzzle of figuring out Maitre's name in Fifth Head of Cerberus 
is: "Gene Wolfe".

I don't find this to be mere literary cleverness and sleight of hand. I think
this is Wolfe's way of saying that much of the mystery of his work can find
its solution in autobiography.

I find the title "Fifth Head of Cerberus" itself to be a similar puzzle (Aunt
Jeannine suggests that it is). What are the "five" heads? We have Mr. Million, 
his first clone, Maitre and Number Five. So only four in the sequence. Who is the 
fifth? 

I think the answer is the person who came before Mr. Million and who created him
as a character.  I think the fifth head is Gene Wolfe (the author) and only by 
catching that can you understand the title of the book and thus a main intended 
self-referential auctorial theme of the book.

So for me, the five coffins in the mausoleum are a direct reference to the 
earlier book title and a way of saying, "once again I, Gene Wolfe as author, am
an integral part of this story and my character Severian is a clone/extension
of me in some ways". Naming Severian's father "Ouen" (Welsh form of Eugene) may 
also make a similar point.

I find Driussi's essay on the similarities between Wolfe's and Severian's
lives to also be relevant to this general idea. 

Explaining why two of the coffins are open is a bit tough, but my best guess
is that Wolfe is saying he has "cloned" himself into two of his previous 
novels, those being Fifth Head of Cerberus and Peace. 

Interestingly, Daniel Otto Jack Peterson has recently posted a link to a review of 
Peace which mentions its autobiographical mysteries and the self-awareness of the 
author as he creates the story and its characters.

FWIW, I first posted these ideas on this board a number of years ago, so perhaps 
there is a chance this is what you were looking for Michael?

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