Book of the New Sun: Difference between revisions

** {{spoiler|Also, at one point it becomes necessary for Severian to crack a man's head open and eat his forebrain while he's still living. Yeah.}}

* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]: Agia and Agilus. {{spoiler|Possibly inter alia, if Severian's missing sister, Severa, is Jolenta or Juturna.}}

** That claim has confused quite a few readers due to unfortunate typos such as "onegars", a type of animal no one could identify. Turns out it's a typo for "onagers"; onagers are donkey-like animals. (Wolfe gave the definitions for a lot of the weirder words in his book "The Castle of the Otter", which is well worth reading.)

* [[Christianity Is Catholic]]: Wolfe is Catholic and the religions existing in the world are based upon Catholicism. Justified perhaps by the [[Epileptic Trees]] theory that the novels are set in future South America.

** {{spoiler|Which doubles as a [[Stealth Pun]], since Severian is [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]. I see what you did there, Gene Wolfe.}}

* [[Designated Hero]]: Severian is often very unlikeable, and his actions are rarely, if ever, heroic.

* Dystopia: The Ascian nation is an Orwellian dystopia. (The rest of the world isn't that well off either, frankly.)

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: Typhon and his children - though they're neither the only nor the oldest ones. Abaia and Erebus are particularly nasty, apparently, though [[Take Our Word for It|they're never seen in person]] - only their human worshippers/slaves, the Ascians, who are an Orwellian totalitarian nation.

* [[Epileptic Trees]]: whole groves of them. Some people have claimed that Dorcas might actually be a ''vampire''.

* [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory]]

** In ''The Urth of the New Sun'' he mentioned that his friends called him "Severian the Lame" and his soldiers called him "Severian the Great." This may be a shout-out to the Asian warlord Timur, who was also known by both titles. (It was apparently a pun in Timur's language.)

** Also, sort of a combination of Expy and [[Shout-Out]] is the Librarian Ultan who Severian meets, who is clearly based on the author Borges.

* [[Five-Man Band]] - subverted to hell and back with Dr Talos' players, who Severian crosses paths with and then ''leaves'', several times. Severian even meets Dr Talos and Baldanders [[You All Meet in An Inn|in an inn]].

* [[Future Imperfect]]: Several examples. While at the library, Severian sees a picture of the first men on the moon and not only describes it in an [[Innocent Inaccurate]] way, but also wonders why there's no vegetation on it. Another scene makes reference to the planet Mars being renamed "Present" at some point and one character can't believe a language existed where the words for "gift" and "now" were the same. There's also a scene where Severian hears a story which has a definite similarity to that of Theseus, but has no idea of the connection {{spoiler|long lived robot Jonas does understand the connection though}}

* [[Genetic Memory]] - Severian, after {{spoiler|ingesting alzabo gland extract and eating part of Thecla}}, inherits her memories.

* [[Genius Bruiser]] - {{spoiler|Baldanders}}.

** Note that while he's a giant {{spoiler|already, he's not even close to full-grown. He will get big enough to have to live in the water eventually, among the Undines and other giant-types too big to walk on land, which as the comment above states, seem to have eerie abilities - there's a throwaway reference to them swimming between the stars.}}

* [[Handsome Lech]]: While he does experience [[Character Development]], Severian has a really hard time relating women in terms other than their physical attractiveness. While Severian states outright that he himself is not at all attractive, [[Unreliable Narrator|he isn't necessarily reliable on that topic]].

* [[Have We Met Yet?]] - Played straight and inverted ''at the same time''. The Hierodules are constantly moving backwards in time, while Severian moves through time normally - hence, his last meeting with them in ''Urth of the New Sun'' is their first meeting with him.

** See also: [[Merlin Sickness]]

* [[Informed Attractiveness]] - As with other aspects of the books' world, standards of beauty appear to undergo a ton of translation loss between actuality and the narration. There's a strong chance that many of the books' most "beautiful" characters would appear downright unsettling to our eyes.

** Consider the unnatural height and alien-influenced appearance of exultants, whose numbers include Thecla, Vodalus, and Thea. The exact ''degree'' of their distinctive height and features is vague, leaving it uncertain whether they'd strike us as beautiful people or as borderline [[Humanoid Abomination|HumanoidAbominations]].

* [[Innocent Inaccurate]]: Severian combines this with being a straight [[Unreliable Narrator]]. He's more of the former in describing the world he lives in (e.g. his description of a photo of the moon landing), but is more like the latter in describing his own life.

* [[Istanbul Not Constantinople]]: As suggested in [http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=469 the ''[[GURPS]'' game]], the Commonwealth where Severian lives is in South America (Buenos Aires is often suggested as the location of Nessus), the [[People's Republic of Tyranny|Ascians]] are the former United States of America, and the Xanthic peoples are Asian.

* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified]] - Heavily subverted with Vodalus.

* [[Robot Buddy]]: {{spoiler|Jonas}}

* [[Show Within a Show]]: Dr. Talos' play "Eschatology and Genesis," which is an allegory for the overarching plot of the series.

* [[Space Is an Ocean]]: Not only are sailing metaphors used for space travelers, their crafts are actually made a lot like traditional sail boats.

** It goes even further. Not only are ordinary sailors sometimes employed on starships, but thanks to the difficulty of travel, other planets may as well be other continents as far as most people are concerned.

* [[The Spock]]: Severian

* [[So Beautiful It's a Curse]]: Subverted by Jolenta - she herself enjoys being so beautiful that [[Even the Girls Want Her]]. {{spoiler|However, the process used by Dr. Talos to ''make'' her beautiful has left her effectively crippled and dependent on various lotions and chemicals only he can provide, without which it breaks down. Horribly.}}

* [[Solar CPR]]