(urth) The Outsider

[Craig Brewer]

Witz said:

>> This is a book that seems soooooooo important to Severian that he  carries it 
>>through the entire BotNS. It is plausible that this is a  truly random event, 
>>but NOTHING else about >>Severian's life, or the tasks  he's assigned, seems 
>>random at all, so it is just as likely, perhaps  more likely, that Ultan has had 
>>a hand in shaping him.
>>
>>This book is treacherous.

Allow me some total speculation. You've been warned.

Ultan, of course, talks about the The Book of Gold, and the circumstances in 
which to-be-apprenticed librarians is a mystical, mysterious experience. It 
initiates their initiation.

And he uses the word "christening," which can hardly be a careless use on 
Wolfe's part, I'd imagine:

"The child, as I said, in time discovers The Book of Gold. Then the librarians 
come - like vampires, some say, but others say like the fairy godparents at a 
christening. They speak to the child, and the child joins them. Henceforth, he 
is in the library wherever he may be, and soon his parents know him no more. I 
suppose it is much the same among torturers."

So we've got the imagery of dying (vampires) from one life and being reborn into 
another (vampires, again, and the christening, as well as one's parents not 
knowing one anymore). And there's also the sense that, after you find the book, 
you're always in that new world, no matter where you are.

The point: it's very much a conversion story. And it's a conversion story 
centered on finding a book. 


So here the speculation begins: in what sense in Sev's Brown Book perhaps his 
own Book of Gold? (Does he ever call it that later? I can't recall exactly, but 
I thought he might.) But it's also brown, rather than gold. We know it's myths 
that are true but also corrupted. So in what sense does the Brown Book serve as 
a kind of true-but seen "through a glass darkly" revelation to Sev of truer 
things?

And when Wolfe also admits that he knows many people have seen New Sun as a Book 
of Gold itself, it seems to fit: it, too, is telling true myths in false ways.

So it seems like we have a very Christian (if slightly less Catholic) notion of 
a book being a guide to revelation. But we also have the very Wolfean idea that 
the book misleads in all kinds of ways.

It still seems right, as Witz said, that the book should shape him in a TRUE way 
(apart from the Hiero-folk manipulation). Metaphorically, at least it works. 
Maybe that's just obvious, though...




----- Original Message ----
From: Son of Witz <Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Sat, December 18, 2010 10:30:22 AM
Subject: Re: (urth) The Outsider


On Dec 17, 2010, at 11:35 PM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote:

> On 12/17/2010 7:35 PM, Son of Witz wrote:
>> True, it may mean between suns. But I'd wager Ultan is learned enough to
>> choose his words carefully, and would likely know as much about this
>> stuff as Malrubius's aquastor.
> 
> I don't see any way for Ultan to know about Yesodi-level goings on and yet feel 
>free to share it so casually with someone he can't positively identify.
> 

Well...

Are we convinced that Severian going to Ultan isn't part of his being steered?
Do we take Ultan at face value when he just knows, off the top of his head, that 
a book is leaning in such a way on such a shelf, even when he's been blind for 
years and his apprentice has no idea about?  This is a book that seems soooooooo 
important to Severian that he carries it through the entire BotNS. It is 
plausible that this is a truly random event, but NOTHING else about Severian's 
life, or the tasks he's assigned, seems random at all, so it is just as likely, 
perhaps more likely, that Ultan has had a hand in shaping him.

This book is treacherous.
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