I finished The Book of the New Sun today and wanted a place to discuss…everything and anything. However, be warned, I have marked this thread open spoilers and this is a book that is highly spoilable.
Spoilers start in the next post.
I will be reading The Urth of the New Sun next, but have not yet.
I am surprised by the ending of the book. I expected that he had already restored a new sun and was telling the story after that, not that he was telling the story as he is about to leave to go to the new sun.
Was Master Malrubeus in the guild an alien, or did he merely encounter an alien that took his form?
I had predicted that Severian had time traveled and encountered himself many times throughout his journey. This does not appear to be the case.
I liked the book a lot, but I found the last 50 pages mesmerizing and confusing. Who was/is Father Inire? What/Who was the homonculus in the special cell used only for the Autarch?
I have so many questions that I can never answer them or even ask them. I note that Severian suggests reading his account again.
What new insights do people get from re-reading the entire account? I have often heard that Gene Wolfe likes to make books that are fun to re-read. What do people get? What was hidden throughout the book that is rewarding upon re-read?
Hi Mahaloth, a couple of guys are podcasting some pretty deep readthroughs of Wolfe (and others) work here:
I listened to a few on *the sorceror’s house *and thought they were v good - reason for bumping this thread, though, is that they have Shadow of the Torturer on the slate for later this year, so maybe something to assist a re-read. I’ve been thinking of picking BotNS back up for a while now, so this might spur me to do it.
You’ll have probably seen that there’s a megaton of Wolfe discussion on some archived mailing lists called Urth and Whorl - the format is hard to digest in retrospect (IMHO), I used to follow it when the short sun books were coming out and it made more sense at the time. The current reddit page seems pretty good (https://www.reddit.com/r/genewolfe/)
I just finished his last one ‘A borrowed man’ - have to admit I miss the old Wolfe who was a writer first, constructor of elaborate puzzles second. Still plenty there to enjoy, but the prose has basically been abandoned.
Severian had time traveled and encountered himself other times throughout his journey. That is the answer to why he restored the New Sun but has yet to go get it, by the way. Severian isn’t the only one traveling through time, also by the way.
There was an original Malrubius, but when Severian meets him later he’s an aquastor – that’s not an alien. Inire is an “alien”, much like the hierodules (Barbatus and Famulimus; Osspago is something else). Although “alien” isn’t quite the right term; more is learned in The Urth of the New Sun.
I’m not sure which homunculus for the Autarch you mean; the only homunculus I recall offhand is Talos. Are you referring to the Well of Orchids in the House Absolute?
Everything I’ve read of Wolfe’s has more to learn on a re-read. The Book of the New Sun is very dense with information, and how things are presented can be subtle and misleading. Severian is an unreliable narrator, which is a favorite of Wolfe’s. On re-reading you’ll notice details that you didn’t realize were important before – almost everything Severian mentions is relevant in some way, and even his idle speculations are often hints that he’s figured something out he hasn’t told you.
When did he encounter himself, then? I read this book and Urth and did not figure it out.
When he gets into the secret room back at the Torturer’s guild, there is a homunculus there that talks to him.
I’m going to spoiler-hide this, even though the OP mentions open spoilers:
[spoiler]Severian was Apu-Punchau. He was also the Conciliator, of course (although The Urth of the New Sun has more on that). And, also, he played as a child in his own tomb – but that one is very hard to figure out without re-reading with super attention to detail.
… and come to think, he might have drowned in the Gyoll as a child. I’d have to go back and re-read to remember, though.
He also meets his grandmother, Dorcas, and father, Ouen, although no time traveling was involved in those. Well, not with Ouen, at least.[/spoiler]
Ah, the mandragora/curcurbit thing. Don’t really know on that one. Even odds it’s just a weird forgotten thing lying about on ancient Urth that Severian encounters, or it’s really a dead embryo that Severian accidentally restores to a semblance of life via his power as the Conciliator/New Sun. If the latter, I’d guess Severian thought it was another kind of aquastor he’d manifested to tell himself stuff, much like the other Malrubius was.
Re-reading, that conversation was so oblique it’s difficult to tell what Severian took away from it – and, notably, he doesn’t mention what he did, so that’s probably fraught with meaning, too. (I suspect he’d’ve broken the thing’s jar as asked.)