sev's skull

Lisa Schaffer-Doggett · 09 Jul 2003, 07:56 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: Lisa Schaffer-Doggett <harlekin at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) sev's skull
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 00:56:07 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3597 at digest.urth.net>
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On Tuesday, July 8, 2003, at 12:47 PM, maa32 wrote:

>    If he's not the first Severian (and we meet
> Ymar in Urth, and Severian says little about being identical to him -
> something one would certainly note: "he looked just like me as a kid!=20
> Go
> figure!")

Don believes that the skull might or might not be Severian's.  Don=20
however is certain that Severian leaves out many things when it suits=20
him as both the Book of the New Sun and the Urth of the New Sun are=20
Apologies and somewhat self serving autobiographies.  Don would also=20
venture to guess that if a person fully grown ran into someone who=20
looked exactly like him as a child he might not recognize it, a=20
person's current self image being the dominant one in his thoughts. =20
Ymar is the first Severian.  He is the Aleph.  He is also the only=20
other one who was raised by torturers and went in a ship to attempt a=20
reconciliation with the Hieros.  The original "Severian" has a tomb on=20
Urth.  His timeline is not negated by our Severian who, though he may=20
have died many times, has no mausoleum.  I have no doubts about this=20
and only a direct negation by Gene Wolfe himself will change my mind.

Don is through ranting now.

--=20

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