(urth) hello, anyone want to talk BOTNS? If so - Jolenta and her Guild?
Jane Delawney
jane_delawney at sky.com
Sat May 29 18:42:33 PDT 2010
Hello? Is there anybody out there?
Just about a third of the way through my fifth or sixth rereading of
BOTNS and wondering if anyone has any insights to offer on a few things
I never noticed before (there are always things one didn't notice before!).
On this occasion - when Severian meets up with Dr. Talos's Players at
Ctesiphon's Cross (even tho' he meant to do no such thing!) Jolenta at
one point remarks to him regarding the Wall of Nessus that she could see
it as a line of black on the northern horizon 'from the glass-roofed
room *at the top of our tower*'.
Now I've read a little more I am aware of the interpretation placed upon
this by Robert Borski who extrapolates that Jolenta, whose original name
we are never told, was possibly raised amongst the Witches and may
indeed be Severian's lost twin sister. Whatever the truth of this, it's
certainly clear that Jolenta has known a life where she dwelt in a tower
high enough to view the Wall even from the midst of Nessus, and that in
addition, like Severian himself, she once knew a fellowship close enough
that even after some time, during which she has either left voluntarily
or been ejected for some infraction, she (like Severian, again) still
refers to her former comrades as 'us'; it is 'OUR tower'.
However this does not afford proof that she was ever apprenticed to the
Witches; whilst the Witches' Guild is the only one we are told of which
is exclusively female, Severian is careful to tell us that most guilds
(saving his own, that of the Beast-Masters and that of the Witches) do
admit both sexes. So even if Jolenta does remember a childhood in a
Guild Tower within the Citadel (and there's no suggestion that all
Guilds have their headquarters in this area, whether within ship/Towers
or not, so she could have been raised in a Tower outside the citadel, or
even within some entirely different kind of structure which could none
the less have qualified as a 'tower' and sported a glass roof of a
different sort) there's no certainty that this was the tower of the
Witches. She could have been an upholsterers' apprentice perhaps; or an
apothecaries'.
I wonder if anyone on the list has any views on the subject? Asking,
because as someone who has read BOTNS several times it was really
striking to me really to notice this phrase for the first time (I'm sure
I've read it many times without taking in the possible implications).
Apologies to all if this is a simple beginner's question and merely
betrays that I haven't been following the fandom for some years - this
is quite true, and I'm currently trying to catch up.
cheers and thanks
JD
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