Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun (Spoilers possible)

Jim Gardner · 11 Feb 1986, 22:59 · from net.sf-lovers.1986.mbox

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From: jagardner at watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun (Spoilers possible)
Date: Tue, 11-Feb-86 17:59:40 EST
Message-ID: <1181 at watmath.UUCP>
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
References: <194 at analog.UUCP> <3840005 at csd2.UUCP> <11683 at ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1090 at watmath.UUCP> <168 at ucdavis.UUCP>

[...]

I'm not sure I want to become known as the resident Book of
the New Sun fanatic, so I'm hesitant to expand on my previous posting.
However, a few points:

	I took great pains to avoid saying anything patronizing
	to people who didn't like the book.  Heaven knows, I've
	had people tell me, "This book changed my life" and found
	that when I read it, I hated it.  I also took great pains
	not to say that Gene Wolfe is the greatest living SF writer.
	I don't like statements like that.  "Greatness" is made up
	of more things than writing one great book.

	For the people who were quick to write me and inform me
	that my attitude is full of shit, all I can say is "Not
	everything that SOUNDS like bullshit IS bullshit"

And some answers to questions.
In article <168 at ucdavis.UUCP> ccrrick at deneb.UUCP writes:
>So many of the characters seem to be insane and therefore take actions
>that appear illogical:  Master Palaemon gives an extremely valuable
>sword to a man who never seemed to interest him and who ought to be
>sentenced to death. 
If you trust an author, you say that irrational actions are hints to
something else.  In particular (SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER): Master
Palaemon notes that one other torturer fouled up and was banished for
a time from the guild.  In Citadel of the Autarch, it becomes clear
that the person in question was Palaemon himself and that he went
through many of the same places and experiences that Severian did.
(Severian notes early on that Palaemon is a complicated man attempting
to seem simple.)  In fact, the odds are good that Palaemon picked up
the sword in his travels in the outside world.  With this in mind,
the gift makes a great deal more sense.

The rationality of Dr. Talos, Baldanders and the stuttering
>man seem questionable to me as well.
Dr.Talos and Baldanders are indeed interesting characters, and
both somewhat more than human.  Many mysteries about them are solved in
Sword of the Lictor.
 
>One thing that intrigues me is the theory that Severian has lived this
>life before and that all the events depicted have been experienced by
>Severian not once, but twice.  Anyone have any thoughts or theories on
>this?  What made someone think of this rather unique thought in
>the first place?  What evidence is there for it?
Severian himself claims this to be true in Citadel of the Autarch.
At the risk of bringing things down to SF cliches, you can look at
it this way (SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER): all possible futures exist
and people from those futures can return to their pasts.  In fact,
Severian meets at least two time-travellers, from mutually exclusive
futures.  They can both visit Severian's time, because their pasts
are solid and Severian is part of their past.  However, neither
time line is necessarily the one that Severian will experience.

In some other timeline, there was another Severian who experienced
similar things to the real Severian.  The various Powers who know
what happens on various time lines interceded at various points in
Severian's life to put him back on the pattern of events experienced
by the first Severian...until things flew too far apart for them to
be held together.  The first Severian went along his own time line
and became Autarch, just as the narrating Severian did; remember that
the first Severian experienced most of what the narrator did.  The
first Severian later became a time traveller and went back into his
own past.  This was also "our" Severian's past, so some of the things
that the first Severian did eventually affected "our" Severian.

Naturally, there are contradictions inherent in this view of time
travel, but every version of time travel has apparent contradictions,
and no one would ever accuse the Book of the New Sun of being "hard"
science fiction.

So there...a few answers to puzzling questions.  They're there if
you're inclined to search for them.

			Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo

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