From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney@crossover.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Rostum & Nutria
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 1997 17:30:35 


[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

At 07:22 PM 9/8/97 GMT, you wrote:
>Hey, Nutria!  If you're going to get photocopies from alga (that
>NYRSF piece) maybe you should offer in exchange a photocopy of Peter
>Wright's essays from "Foundation No. 66"?

Hmm. Well, I don't want to be *too* picky, but all of these works *are*
copyrighted.... 

Anyway, I think it's pretty clear that the Outsider is both God and a burst
blood-vessel in Silk's head. While it is true that the Outsider shows Silk
many things that Silk could not possibly have know, remember always that
_The Book of the Long Sun_ is a *composed* text, written by a human being,
who wants to make it look like Silk had a real revelation.

I don't put much credence in the idea that the Outsider is Severian,
incidentally, even despite the multigendered polyphony. The entire
Enlightenment experience is polyphonous; of course the Outsider "is", as
well. I think we might be looking for connections where none are present.
(What? Can it be?)
--
Wombat


Kevin Maroney		kmaroney@crossover.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor	New York Review of Science Fiction
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html