I don't have a good answer for you. I don't think the "Gene Wolfe" persona plays a very large role in TBotNS. I think that, as you say, he just gave up the pretense. Probably because another persónal layer -- a translator -- would have distracted from the issues of identity he was raising with Horn/Silk, which have become more central in TBotSS than was the case with Severian/Thecla in TBotNS. Wolfe does insert himself into the text of "Horn's Book" as "a man in Urbasecundus" (i.e., Second City -- Chicago) "who was said to have produced a similar book" (OBW 51).<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 8:32 PM, Craig Brewer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cnbrewer@yahoo.com">cnbrewer@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Just about done with Short Sun (again), but endings have me thinking again about the "Appendices" in New Sun and their absence in Long/Short. Has there been any speculation on the role of "Gene Wolfe" (the "translator" who got his hands on Severian's manuscript) with Long/Short Sun or even (if they're distinct in the end) _The Book of Silk_ and _The Book of Horn_?<br>
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Of course, although we get metafiction in both, we don't get the same type of metafiction. Horn writing long sun and Hide/Horn/wives writing _The Book of Horn_ is one thing...but what is the relation of these later compositors to "Gene Wolfe" in New Sun? Any significance to their difference? Or did he just give up the pretense?<br>
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