(urth) Gummed-Up Works or Got Lives?

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Lee Berman 
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011 1:48 PM

> But, I was pleasantly surprised that with Severian's exile, his life and the story opened up 
> nicely. It was gradual, but I remember at some point realizing, "oh, a sword, a giant, a 
> sleeping beauty, magic, palaces..now I know what sort of story I'm in!". 

Certainly there are fairy-tale elements.  But we are also left in no doubt about the deep-future background against which these tropes must be interpreted.  The logic of fairy-tales will be of limited application. 

> Funnily,  the lack 
> of a point on the end of Terminus Est was an effective disguise. It seems more like a tool 
> than a weapon for so much of the story. The sorcery is likewise disguised, by scientific
> trappings.      

I didn’t feel the same way about the point.  The sword is as tall as Severian, after all, and very heavy – it is not a sword to lunge with.  Few combat scenarios would be affected by the absence of a point.

However, that is by-the-by.  While genre categorisation arguments can get a bit silly, especially with a genre-mixing author like Wolfe, I would argue that BotNS is not really part of the ‘swords and sorcery’ genre, even though it does indeed contain swords* and sorcery, and indeed certain episodes (e.g. the mine with the man-apes) that would fit comfortably into the genre.  It’s not _about_ the swords and sorcery.

[*] Not all that many sword, thoughs.  Severian’s gets broken halfway through, and I don’t recall what weapon he uses in the war.  Vodalus also carries a sword.  I don’t remember any others, offhand.  Still, we can agree that the sword is prominent, and they must be reasonably commonplace even if there is never a true swordfight.

- Gerry Quinn
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