Severian - unreliable narrator?

Rich Horton · 04 Aug 2006, 23:28 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2006.mbox

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From: Rich Horton <rrhorton at prodigy.net>
Subject: Re: Severian - unreliable narrator?
Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2006 23:28:48 GMT
Message-ID: <lul7d21oo1fvhmg6e68jgl0aq8qm8farf5 at 4ax.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <1154702938.622857.74150 at b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> <44D3C1AE.BD234EAA at optonline.com>

On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:52:45 -0400, Andrew Wheeler
<acwheele at optonline.com> wrote:

>adrianmarley at yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>> 
>> I'm currently working my way through Gene Wolfe's _Book of the New
>> Sun_. I have read quite a bit about this work and know that it is very
>> highly regarded among sf critics and fans. A lot of what I've read,
>> though, refers to Severian as being an unreliable narrator.
>> 
>> My question is this: In what way is Severian unreliable? Can anybody
>> point out specific instances of where is being unreliable or where he
>> is telling lies?
>
>I don't have chapter and verse in front of me, but one big red flag is
>that Severian both says that he has perfect recall and then (as the
>books go on) says that he has "forgotten" some detail or other.

That's Roy Lackey's reading -- wherever Severian remarks on his
perfect memory, he is shown to stumble. However, that does not make
him a classical "unreliable" narrator -- that is to say, one who lies
for self-serving (or narrative-serving) reasons -- but simply an
imperfect narrator.

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