It's Mostly the Ending

Adam Stephanides · 11 Apr 2001, 17:40 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) It's Mostly the Ending
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 17:40:41
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0587 at digest.urth.net>
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on 4/11/01 8:15 AM, David Lebling at dlebling at ucentric.com wrote:

> Merryn's appearance, which struck me as a case of Asimov's syndrome, had =
as
> a saving grace the fact that we _didn't_ find out she was Severian's sist=
er,
> which would have been an even worse case of the above.

But we did, I think.  Jahlee says she doesn't know who the boy [Severian]
is, and Merryn says "'He's my brother.  We're brothers and sisters, we
witches and the torturers.'" (267)  There's a bit of ambiguity here, as her
words could be interpreted as meaning only that all torturers are "brothers"
to all witches; but if that's what she means, her answer is rather
unhelpful.

> I think he ran out of energy or room or ideas or some combination of the
> three. Up to the point where the inhumi attack the wedding, things seemed
> almost on track, but after that there are few scenes that are excellent
> (Silk and Remora is one, but it's undercut by the fact that we knew "Horn"
> was Silk already -- we don't feel Silk's awakening).

Huh?  The scene with Silk and Remora is the only scene that follows the
wedding attack, except for the three-page Afterword.

--Adam

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