(urth) Introduction and Breath
David Stockhoff
dstockhoff at verizon.net
Sun Apr 17 13:50:51 PDT 2011
I think the test here is "more unreliable than is usual in science
fiction." It's a pretty low bar Severian clears with ease, just by his
lies of omission.
Gerry's comment that, to Severian, "just a moment ago" is long enough to
compose ~50 written pages by hand is another example, however limited in
effect.
On 4/16/2011 4:58 AM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
> So glad people are asking about Severian as unreliable narrator! I
> suspect it's one of those ideas that someone said in a review and then
> it got blurbed on a jacket cover and then it just became the
> 'official' interpretation and is now in an endless repeat loop. I
> don't think I have ever yet mentioned it in comments or reviews about
> New Sun as I simply don't understand it. I'm totally open to being
> shown how it is the case, but the reasons given in this thread are,
> frankly, unconvincing. They show how Wolfe's narrative art overall is
> strange and tricksy and indirect and elusive - things I /do/ talk
> about in commenting on all of Wolfe's fiction - but not how Severian
> himself overall is helpfully and accurately described as an
> 'unreliable narrator' or how this is a central and significant trope
> that characterises tBotNS. It's all hints and suspicions and
> possibilities - which are great, but should be left at that I think.
>
> We still await the carefully documented and argued case for Severian
> as unreliable narrator.
>
> -DOJP
>
> 2011/4/15 António Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com
> <mailto:entonio at gmail.com>>
>
> Antonin Scriabin wrote (15-04-2011 17:48):
>
> Severian's perfect memory seems selective. There are moments
> where seems to say "I have a perfect memory, except for when I
> don't".
>
>
> Am I misremembering, or one of the first pages of NS goes like
> this: 'So Drotte was doing something... did I mention I have a
> perfect memory? I have a perfect memory! Anyway, Roche was doing
> something...'?
>
> Almost cartoonish. Roger Rabbitish.
>
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