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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=ryan@liftingfaces.com
href="mailto:ryan@liftingfaces.com">Ryan Dunn</A> </DIV>
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I don't think anybody disputes the substance to the visible story, but on
its</DIV></DIV>
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own, Severian's hero quest is not "best sci fi series of all time" material,
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sorry to say. It is the subverted meanings, the parables within the text,
the</DIV></DIV>
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actual "style" of the novel also (unreliable narrator) that make the story
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truly special. </DIV>
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<DIV>> As far as Severian as a puppet. No if that were the visible story, it
would </DIV>
<DIV>> not be interesting at all. But as a potential hidden story unbeknownst
to </DIV>
<DIV>> the narrator telling it to us, it certainly is a crafty, interesting,
and </DIV>
<DIV>> potentially genius revelation, no?</DIV>
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<DIV>But the thing is, we *do* have a great underlying story, and it’s certainly
quite reasonable to argue that in that story Severian is in some senses a
puppet. He is surely observed and to some degree manipulated by great
forces, after all. On the other hand, it seems he both understands his
part to the extent of his ability, and plays it willingly, and that is not the
description of a puppet, unless we are all puppets.</DIV>
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<DIV>But to extrapolate this to make the entire storyline into a shadow play, in
which no character is what they seem, and no element of the overt story or the
aforementioned underlying story has any meaning or verity, seems to verge on
mistaking BotNS for the sort of story that the Turkey City Lexicon calls “The
Jar of Tang”.</DIV>
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<DIV>It’s not that story. And if Wolfe had wanted to write that story, he
would have written it better, and the substitutions and unveilings would
actually work to explain things.</DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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