(urth) Clute's Interpretation of Severian Becoming the Autarch

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes danldo at gmail.com
Wed Jul 11 19:35:46 PDT 2007


Adam,

I don't see there anything about murder. Clute does say that Sev
is concealing (something important about) how he came to be
the Autarch, but, really, what he does do -- cut the old Autarch's
skull open and eat his brains -- seems quite bad enough.

--Dan'l

On 7/11/07, E <euth82 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I was reading one of Clute's reviews
> (http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue133/excess.html) and in it he mentions
> that Severian is a liar, implying he assumes the role of Autarch in an
> underhanded manner through murder.  Does anyone know what Clute's
> exact argument is, and what evidence he uses to support it?  Because
> if this is true then it really changes what I thought about the
> story... I know Severian routinely lies or purposefully omits details,
> so that does make him a "liar", but if he is completely lying about
> over-taking the Autarchy, that makes him a much greater liar than I
> imagined.
>
> I have spent a good amount of time reading through these forums and
> Google-searching for Clute's interpretation on this matter, but can't
> find anything.  I have looked quite a while.  Also, unfortunately, my
> library doesn't have copies of Clute's "Encyclopedia of Science
> Fiction" or "Scores" works (although I'm not even sure if they would
> be able to answer my question.)
>
> Does anyone have any insight into this?
>
> Best,
>
>
>   - Adam
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
http://www.danehyoakes.com
Soon, where Toon Town once stood will be a string of gas stations,
inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food. Tire
salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards
reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful.



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