Sev's memory

Jim Russell · 17 Aug 2000, 10:38 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: Jim Russell <J.A.Russell at exeter.ac.uk>
Subject: (urth) Sev's memory
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 11:38:22 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time)
Message-ID: <urth-v0029-0169 at digest.urth.net>
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A. Aramini wrote:

> One of my favorite lines in the whole Book of the New Sun (I'm sure this =
has
> been commented on before, but I haven't had the chance to peruse the old
> archives) is in The Citadel of the Autarch in Chapter V: The Lazaret.
> An inane conversation with Loyal to the Group of Seventeen hides a wonder=
ful
> statement by Severian.
> They are talking about how the Ascians only speak with correct thought:
>=20
> "'The rest have thousands- I suppose actually tens or hundreds of
> thousands - of those tags memorized.'
>=20
>     'That's impossible,' I said"
>=20
>     Even though it at first appears that Severian is denying that the
> society and its practices are possible, he is directly denying that anyon=
e's
> memory  could be that good.
> What a great scene. In my mind, this is very condemning of Severian as a
> narrator, since he claims over and over to remember all those thousands of
> lines of his book that he will perfectly copy on the ship.  He says sever=
al
> times that he cannot conceive of a memory that is less than perfect, yet
> here he is presented with simply good memory and denies that it can exist.

Actually, in Claw (Page 373 in the Masterworks edition) Sev=20
says:=20

We cannot, a I have heard foolishly alleged, remeber=20
everything. I cannot recall the ordering of the books on=20
the shelves in the library of master Ultan, for example.=20
But I can remember more than many would credit: The=20
position of each object on a table I walked past when I was=20
a child and *even that I recalled some scene to mind=20
previously, and how that remembered incident differed from=20
the memory of it I have.*

This last bit is tantamount to saying "Yes I have a perfect=20
memory, and I can recall, perfectly, the times when=20
my memory was imperfect." Therefore, in a very veiled way=20
Sev is saying that his memory isn't perfect.

What interests me is the extent to which this inconsistency=20
is not to do with Sev's status as unreliable narrator, but=20
rather a part of the alterations being made by the Heiro's=20
in the world around him. Did Severian originally not have=20
sex with Thecla, for example, but when something was later=20
altered he phased into a reality where he ha?. Or, mor=20
obviously, did he just neglect to mention it?

Also, I'm very interested in the idea that The Book itself=20
is an imperfect palimsest. If we suposedly have in our=20
hands the copy made by Sev on Tzadkiel's ship, how are we=20
to know that that is the same as the original, a massive=20
book written ten years earlier, when Sev cannot remember=20
small details. Perhaps this accounts for the texts many=20
inconsistencies.

Questions, questions...
----------------------
Jim Russell
University of Exeter

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