(urth) Introduction and Breath

[Bart Everson]

Greetings Urth people,

I have been lurking here for a while, somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer
volume.

Actually I don't care for the term lurking. I don't like what it connotes. I
don't feel like I've been hiding in the shadows. I feel like I've been
submerged, swimming through the endless flow of your words. Now that we seem
to have hit a relatively calm spell, I thought I should be polite and
introduce myself, even though I have nothing in particular to say. I feel
like now I am coming up to the surface to take a breath of air.

Even as I write this I'm having a sense of *déjà vu*. Have I introduced
myself before? I don't think so, but I did some lurking (I mean swimming)
here almost ten years ago, or so I recall. I've searched the archives but I
can't see any evidence that I ever made my presence known. Then again, I
can't be certain, I've used so many different aliases on the net. I do
remember that I was turned on to *Little, Big* when it was mentioned here,
so thank you for that, whoever you are.

I'm writing now because at this time I'm making my way through *The Book of
the New Sun* yet again. I've lost track of how many times I've read it. This
might be my 15th time or my 20th. I've read it aloud (three or four times)
and I've read the books in reverse order and even read it chapter-by-chapter
in reverse order or in randomized fashion according to a scheme I devised
and have long since forgotten. I find new insights are revealed by
contriving such juxtapositions.

Finally, I thought I'd ask something that has perplexed me for many years. I
often read about Severian's supposed unreliability as a narrator. This
notion greatly intrigued me at first as I think *Pale Fire* is one of the
greatest books ever written, and each time I have revisited the story I have
looked for clues, but I'm unable to figure this one out. What exactly is the
nature of his unreliability? Every cited instance I've seen seems to be
fairly trivial. What is the big lie? What am I missing?

Editor B
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