<div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">>Lee (<a href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com">severiansola@hotmail.com</a>): </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Personally, I find the five coffins in the mausoleum to be impossible to </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">plausibly understand at just a narrative level. I find it to be most </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">essentially autobiographical in the manner of a puzzle in its referent, </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The Fifth Head of Cerberus. . . . </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I first posted these ideas on this board a number of years ago, so perhaps </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">there is a chance this is what you were looking for Michael?</span><br>
<div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div style>Thanks, Lee - this is certainly a component of what I'm looking for. I agree that in order to understand tBotNS or tFHoC, we need to take account of Wolfe's propensity for autobiography, self-reference, etc., and I think your thoughts (which I certainly do recognize) shed a lot of light into the shadowy mausoleum. But the five coffins -- <u>two empty, three closed</u> -- should work not only on the level of authorial symbol, but the level of narrative as well, shouldn't they? I think this meticulous author and his meticulously plotted book deserve the benefit of that doubt. Severian tells us: "Before you assume that I have cheated you, read again . . ." (Citadel, 405). </div>
<div style><br></div><div style><b>New theory (? - or maybe you've heard it before - is there anything new under the New Sun?). </b><u>Five coffins, two empty, three closed.</u> In Citadel, Severian our narrator tells us of a second "first Severian." What if Severian is, like the narrator of tFHoC, a clone? One of five clones, each initially housed in the mausoleum, which is dislocated in time like the house of Master Ash or one of the botanical gardens? At the time our narrator Severian is leaving Urth for his trial, two of the clones have left/been released from the mausoleum (narrator-Sev and the "first Severian" who came before). If the mausoleum is dislocated in time, then it is possible that each one of the clones would exit into a different strand in the "tapestry" of time. Perhaps whoever constructed the mausoleum and put the five Severians there was/is planning to release them one by one until one of the clones successfully brings the New Sun? </div>
<div style><br></div><div style><b>Clones in the text. </b>I remember reading in a Wolfe interview that the prostitutes in the House Azure, the "khaibits," are in fact clones of the Chatelaines. I think we need to entertain the idea that Father Inire -- "alive so long beyond the span of his short-lived kind" (Citadel, 405) -- who seems (to me) to be many places at once, is not a single person but a multitude of clones (reminded of Borsky's Palaemon as Inire theory, Wright's Ceryx as Inire theory (AD 84), and all the "bent" "crooked" or "small" men who show up cowled or masked in the text -- servitor who confers with the Autarch and escorts Sev to the Green Room (Claw 338), the masked medicine man escorting Sev in the jungle toward the end of Citadel). tFHoC certainly alerts us to the clone as a Wolfe convention and plot device -- could it be a key as well? </div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Could a Severian-as-clone theory explain the baffling scene involving the grotesque homunculus who addresses Severian as "brother" (Citadel, 388)? </div><div style><br></div><div style>
If this theory has any legs at all -- a dubious prospect! -- we would need to account for a sixth Severian, the natural born man, son of Ouen and Catherine, grandson of Dorcas, etc., who was cloned five times. <br></div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Thoughts?</div><div style><br></div><div style><br></div><div style><br></div><div style><br></div><div style><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2013 10:48:13 -0500</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">From: Lee <</span><a href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">severiansola@hotmail.com</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">></span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">To: "</span><a href="mailto:urth@urth.net" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span class="" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204);color:rgb(34,34,34)">urth</span>@<span class="" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204);color:rgb(34,34,34)">urth</span>.net</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">" <</span><a href="mailto:urth@urth.net" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span class="" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204);color:rgb(34,34,34)">urth</span>@<span class="" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204);color:rgb(34,34,34)">urth</span>.net</a><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">></span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Subject: (</span><span class="" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,204);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">urth</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">) Five Severians</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Message-ID: <BLU175-</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">W2411168E0A6AD4248F13D5CFD80@</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">phx.gbl></span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">>Michael Thayer: Druissi's eight Severians theory is a bit opaque.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I agree. Driussi is usually fairly circumspect in injecting his own</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">interpretations onto Wolfe. But now and then, as in this case, he</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">demonstrates an ability to go off on his own tangent with almost Borskian</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">intrepidity.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Personally, I find the five coffins in the mausoleum to be impossible to</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">plausibly understand at just a narrative level. I find it to be most</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">essentially autobiographical in the manner of a puzzle in its referent,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The Fifth Head of Cerberus.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I think most here are aware that Wolfe once (remarkably) admitted that the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">solution to the puzzle of figuring out Maitre's name in Fifth Head of Cerberus</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">is: "Gene Wolfe".</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I don't find this to be mere literary cleverness and sleight of hand. I think</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">this is Wolfe's way of saying that much of the mystery of his work can find</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">its solution in autobiography.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I find the title "Fifth Head of Cerberus" itself to be a similar puzzle (Aunt</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Jeannine suggests that it is). What are the "five" heads? We have Mr. Million,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">his first clone, Maitre and Number Five. So only four in the sequence. Who is the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">fifth?</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I think the answer is the person who came before Mr. Million and who created him</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">as a character. I think the fifth head is Gene Wolfe (the author) and only by</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">catching that can you understand the title of the book and thus a main intended</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">self-referential auctorial theme of the book.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">So for me, the five coffins in the mausoleum are a direct reference to the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">earlier book title and a way of saying, "once again I, Gene Wolfe as author, am</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">an integral part of this story and my character Severian is a clone/extension</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">of me in some ways". Naming Severian's father "Ouen" (Welsh form of Eugene) may</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">also make a similar point.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I find Driussi's essay on the similarities between Wolfe's and Severian's</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">lives to also be relevant to this general idea.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Explaining why two of the coffins are open is a bit tough, but my best guess</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">is that Wolfe is saying he has "cloned" himself into two of his previous</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">novels, those being Fifth Head of Cerberus and Peace.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Interestingly, Daniel Otto Jack Peterson has recently posted a link to a review of</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Peace which mentions its autobiographical mysteries and the self-awareness of the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">author as he creates the story and its characters.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">FWIW, I first posted these ideas on this board a number of years ago, so perhaps</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">there is a chance this is what you were looking for Michael?</span><br>
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