Gate of Nessus and UL

Roy C. Lackey · 27 Jul 2000, 02:31 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net>
Subject: (urth) Gate of Nessus and UL
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 02:31:20
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alga wrote:

>Wrote Nigel:
>> As to what happens to Severian at and immediately after his passage
>>through the gate of Nessus, well, you do gradually get bits and pieces of
>>the story, a detail here and there throughout the length of TCotC. I'm
>> rereading the whole thing very slowly as part of the research for my
>>paper for the symposium at the end of August. Will you be there?

>Nigel, after the symposium will you post your paper? Or at least email
>it to interested people like me, and I bet quite a few others?
>-alga

    Seconded.

Nigel Price wrote (back on June 6):

>Greatly enjoyed reading all the articles and reviews, including those by
>Urth-list regulars Nick Gevers (Potto), Michael Andre-Driussi (Mantis) and
>Robert Borski (canis terribilis cum quinque capitibus). Very excited, too,
>at the news that Peter Wright is publishing a book of his studies on Wolfe
>next year, to be called "Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the
>Reader".  I admire the clear-sightedness of Peter's analysis of the Urth
>cycle no end, and enjoyed his review of The Book of the New Sun in Ultan's
>Library much as I enjoyed his previously published articles, but I'm still
>not sure that I agree with all the conclusions he draws from his analysis.
>To me, his reading of the Urth cycle seems overly deterministic, but I need
>to do an awful lot more work before I can - maybe - come up with a
>convincing counter-argument. (I'm working on it!) I would love to hear what
>others think of Peter's interpretation of Severian's narrative.
>

    Surprisingly, very little has been posted to either list about
Jonathan's first edition of Ultan's Library--doubly so because most of the
contributors belong to the Urth/Whorl lists. I could abide the silence no
longer, so I must echo Nigel's too-modest praise (too modest regarding his
own contribution). I enjoyed each of the pieces, whether I agreed with them
or not. Congratulations, one and all! I particularly wanted to mention Nick
Gevers' articles on LONG SUN, a series I thought left a lot to be desired.
Nick hasn't changed my mind about the books, but I found his insights
fascinating, none the less. The companion pieces were very well written; I
only wish EXODUS had been so.

    As for Peter Wright--where was he last year when I was pointing out that
Severian was an unreliable narrator? <g> I find little to argue with in the
essay and appreciate the psychological angle on why someone with an eidetic
memory can't be trusted to give a reliable account, even when they aren't
out-and-out lying or otherwise skirting the truth. As I have said here
before, Sev's biggest lies are the ones he doesn't tell, the glaring logical
lacunae that spawn so much speculation here, the questions he is in a
position to know the answers to but elects not to reveal. But I've argued
all this before and will await Nigel's rebuttal.

    Also, a belated thank you to alga for sending along her LB articles.

Roy


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