(urth) Theories

[Ryan Dunn]

On Oct 24, 2011, at 9:58 AM, Andrew Mason wrote:

>> However, on the second level, there is the context of the story, which Gene has quite a lot of fun subverting through the subjectivity of his narrator. The Citadel being an old ship yard, the soldier with a staff being an astronaut on the moon. The fact that you feel like you're reading a medieval story fraught with baroque imagery and guilds and masters and sneaky wizards wielding shifty magic; when in fact this is a distant future on a future cycle of a similar universe.
>> 
>> Then there is a third level, which re-evaluates just what exactly is going on with Severian. Who is he? What machinations are luring around the corner? Who might be pulling the strings? What's with all of the mysterious actions and appearances of characters? Why are people guiding and spying on him?
>> 
>> I think this third element is extremely valid and highly informative to how to interact with the story. Of course, you can leave it alone after a first reading satisfied, or read it a second time with a wry smile as you see things that he was hiding in plain sight the first time around. Nobody suggests otherwise. But it is hard to dispute the reality that "nothing is what it seems" is something Wolfe is interested in here and in other works.
> 
> I would see all three of these levels as part of the visible meaning
> of the story. By a surface reading I don't mean a superficial one; I
> just mean  one that an attentive reader can get first time round,
> rather than needing twenty years of discussion to find. (And I'm not
> saying everything is on the surface in this way, just that enough to
> give us a basic idea of what the story is about is.) Severian
> explicitly refers to the propulsion chambers in the towers; Rudesind
> tells him that the 'soldier' is on the moon.  Likewise, Rudesind later
> says that Inire has given him lines to speak, and the Autarch says
> that he has a spy among the torturers. These aspects of meaning are
> not hidden (though specific facets of them may be, of course).

Well I guess the question is where do you end your digging? For me, the rabbit hole is there to dive into. Where you come out and what you've found down there may vary from person to person. You have some with grand united theories, who try to cobble together a new world view based on deciphering the clues and mysteries of the series. Others take the central story and its supporting mysteries as one piece unto itself.

Personally, I don't think those clues are there for optional exploration. I think Wolfe intended they be parsed, contemplated, figured out, and then reverse applied to the story he presented to us on the surface. For me, when the clue changes the story, it is no longer topical/superficial. When you figure out that -- as an orphan -- Severian's family do bear some weight on the trajectory of his life, then yes I feel the urge to question things I don't understand and/or don't feel others have explained/rationalized/demystified adequately.


> That Severian is in some sense a puppet is clear - his life is to a
> large extent being organised by forces beyond his control, as is shown
> by the fact that those forces actually reveal themselves and explain
> what they are up to from time to time. But if it means that he never
> at any time has a grasp of what is going on - well, I think things
> Wolfe has said in interviews show that he sees the New Sun as
> basically a good thing and Severian as  a saviour, so it looks as if
> the destination he is moving towards is indeed in essence what he
> thinks it is.

Well what I was referring to with the "style" of the series also being a level of engagement for the reader is that you have an untrustworthy narrator who not only lies (which always is the cheap thing to say to make it fun for new readers), but more importantly you are reading from a subjective, myopic lens. There are questions about what Severian knows, then how he chooses to phrase it; then there is what he does NOT know, but describes, and how we the reader interpret that. And then there is what he figures out later on, that forces us to reevaluate the story at large.

I like to think of this list, however, as a group of adults with great and  varied knowledge of a great many things coming together to support one another in their pursuit for understanding the deeper meaning of Gene Wolfe books. It seems, however, from time to time, that there are people on here who are content to keep their theories as they have formed them and not constructively contribute to new ideas. It comes off a little patronizing at times, like how you might humor a young person at a party who is trying to explain to you something complicated. Like, "oh, that's great, I love it, now tell the group why you believe that."

I could be reading into it, and I do not pretend to be the keymaster to any deep mysteries.

But the puppet subtext for me is more than just a supporting thing. If his life is a foregone conclusion, and he is not the first Severian to attempt to become the New Sun, then there is a bigger experiment going on beneath the surface that becomes its own story unto itself, no? Severian may be a willing participant, though he never rises to noble heroics, nor does he talk himself up with any sense of arrogance, but he is still held up by strings pulled by -- as you put it -- "forces beyond his control".

And for me, that is a BIG sub-layer to the story. And something people may not see deeply nor subscribe to holistically, but that's OKAY.

...ryan
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