Book of the New Sun: Difference between revisions

* [[Expy]]: Severian has aspects of the Emperor Claudius as seen in [[I Claudius]]. He refers to people calling him "Severian the Mad" as well as "Severian the Lame" and like Claudius has a less than happy marriage to a woman named Valeria.

** 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.)

** Abaia is arguably an Expy of Cthulhu.

* [[Rewatch Bonus]]: There are ''many'' hidden aspects of the story. Most notably {{spoiler|the fact that Dorcas, Severian's second true love, is also his ''[[Squick|grandmother]]''.}}

* [[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]].

* [[Homage]]: Many of the shorter stories encountered throughout the main text contain more or less obvious parallels to real-life mythology and literature. One is quite clearly the first chapter of [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The Jungle Book (Literature)|The Jungle Book]]'', mashed up with the myth of Romulus and Remus and an American Thanksgiving story.

** See also: [[Merlin Sickness]]

* [[Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?]] - Severian does like to talk about his love life a bit much...

* [[Weird Trade Union]]: Besides the Torturers, there are several other guilds such as Librarians and Animal trainers, as well as one of Witches, although rather than being magical, they appear more akin to a spy network.

** Severian claims that the Animal Trainers are literally ''married'' to their animals. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Fanon insists that he is merely confused as to the precise meaning of the term "animal husbandry."]]

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] - one of ''the'' central themes. {{spoiler|In particular, contrast Jolenta with Jonas.}}

* [[Why You Should Destroy the Planet Earth]]