This whole book is a series of fake paintings and secret room, Severian moves along the novel just like the notules’ flight is at one point described as a black rag which “seemed to be blown along by the wind, though the rippling of the grass showed that they faced it.” A strange purposefulness still subject to the winds.
In this volume, more than any other in this tetralogy, it really feels like Wolfe is trying to teach us how to read his work. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Tale of the Student and His Son and Dr. Talos’ play Eschatology and Genesis. Both contain major aspects of the work as a whole, and each emphasises on a different one, indeed almost opposite ones, in the aspects of myth and prophecy in TBOTNS and how these should be taken and interpreted by readers, and yet never giving any answers with regards to what is the one true way to take and use them as a part of a greater whole. However, what each individual takes from either one of these will invariably have a huge effect on their own interpretation of the entire text, and what that one true meaning could possibly be to them.
The previous volume was Wolfe teaching us to pay attention to and examine the smaller things to be able to form a more accurate image of the world Severian inhabits and therefore primes us to be able to attempt the same with the vast things he fleshes and lays out in this one. I can very easily see why some people say this is the most challenging, but also most rewarding volume of the entire work, Wolfe gives us an entire universe of meaning, but only in whispered and hushed hints. Reading through I felt like its really here that the deeper foundations of the entirety of the New Sun series becomes a many branched tree, branches often looping back onto themselves and overlapping each other creating a tapestry of possible meanings and understanding. It’s almost like a choose-your-own-adventure story, every readers personality and experiences takes him along a different path and to a different set of answers
Much like the worm gnawing at the heart of the sun, Father Inire has been the black hole burning his way into my consciousness as I read this volume. While on my first read I simply didn’t understand, and on my second I saw him as a benevolent mirror to Abaia/Erebus influencing Severian towards his destiny of bringing the New Sun, this time I can’t help but see Inire almost everywhere. And rather than gently prodding Severian towards his destiny, to me he might as well be prodding Sev in the right direction with a stick. That is if my current interpretation is anywhere close to Wolfe’s own intention, one which no-one will ever be able to know, an equal beauty and curse of these books.
At this point I’d lean closer to saying its all Father Inire, rather than probably the most popular and accepted theory in all of New Sun, that of the First Severian, influencing our Severian’s journey and shaping him into the correct being to bring about salvation on Urth. As much as First Severian is a very powerful theory and would answer a lot as I understand it, I’ve kind of never been drawn towards it too much, for me I would probably like it more if our Severian was either the third incarnation, or simply the last in an infinite succession of slightly altered Severian’s whose life finally slotted into all the perfect conditions and requirements. Either one of these probably make a lot less sense than just having one previous to our current Severian, and anyways I don’t like either as much as having Inire acting in place of the invisible influence of the First Severian
And all this is to say I’m still just as lost inside the enormous walls Wolfe’s textual labyrinths as anyone, but at least this time I’m trying to find my way by my own light and creating my own meaning from the text, as close or far from Wolfe as it might be, at least it’s mine and I can’t honestly want any more
4/5
A couple questions to end off with just for fun:
What do you think is the purpose of Jonas in this book? What exactly is his connection with Miles?
How does the Cumaean bring the Stone Town and Apu-Punchau back to life, is it something we can understand from the text or a technology so alien we can only understand it as magic?
What are your interpretations of Talos’ play and The Tale of the Student and the Son, and what do they mean to the greater story?
What was the original purpose of the mirrors in the House Absolute? A port/docking point for the ships sailing across the stars might be the most likely answer, but maybe they were first created with different uses in mind.
by marqueemoonchild