Hi.<br>
<br>
I haven't read any ..Sun books outside of the Book of the New Sun, and don't have them to hand to look up references. However!<br>
<br>
I buy into the unreliable-Severian. While it's certainly possible that
his repeatedly-claimed perfect memory isn't actually perfect (and either
he lies, or has convinced himself that his subconscious inventions are
real memories), we can be generous to Severian and assume that his
memory is indeed perfect. But that doesn't help his case, because
perfect recall isn't the only thing required to be an omniscient
narrator - he lacks perfect understanding as well. He might be able to
remember every scene of his life, but if he misunderstands what he sees,
or attributes purposes and implications to the actions and appearance
of people around him incorrectly, he's just as unreliable a narrator as
someone who doesn't well remember the scene in question. Maybe even more
unreliable, so to speak, or at least less helpful, since the
person-without-perfect-memory would admit to gaps in the story.<br>
<br>
And of course, having a perfect memory doesn't mean it's all transcribed
into his writing. At some point I think Severian actually writes that
he has "left out details which are unimportant", noting a few sentences
later (without irony) that he has "no sense of perspective".<br>
<br>
Personally I also think his memory is faulty (though I tend to think
he's deceiving himself that what he remembers is perfect, rather than
'actively' lying); the bits which got me early on were his recollections
of Thecla. Like I say I don't have my copies of the books to hand, but
fairly early on doesn't he give one account of Thecla's death, and then
later (in an offhand comment) give an entirely different one? His
description of their relationship as sexual or platonic seems to change
as the books goes on, too.<br>
<br>
I feel like cataloguing examples sort of misses the point though; if
there's one thing a reader of Gene Wolfe knows it's that he isn't going
to spell anything out in crayon :) and "unreliable narration", for one
reason or another, does seem to be a recurring theme throughout a lot of
his books.<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Daniel Petersen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:danielottojackpetersen@gmail.com">danielottojackpetersen@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">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 <i>do</i> 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.<div>
<br></div><div>We still await the carefully documented and argued case for Severian as unreliable narrator.<br><div><br></div><div>-DOJP<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2011/4/15 António Pedro Marques <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:entonio@gmail.com" target="_blank">entonio@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Antonin Scriabin wrote (15-04-2011 17:48):<div><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Severian's perfect memory seems selective. There are moments<br>
where seems to say "I have a perfect memory, except for when I don't".<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
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...'?<br>
<br>
Almost cartoonish. Roger Rabbitish.<div><div></div><div><br>
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