Book of the New Sun: Difference between revisions

** {{spoiler|Also,Severian bumps into a gigantic infant (that is, the size of a full-grown man) chained to Baldanders's bed. Even Severian is sharp enough to think "catamite."}}

** {{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.}}

* [[Call a Smeerp A Rabbit]]: As if inverting the popular fantasy trope is not enough, Wolfe subverts it for good measure by naming most of his alien, genetically-engineered or otherwise exotic creatures after obscure prehistoric beasts. Apparently not one term in the tetralogy was made up by the author.

** 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.

* [[Covers Always Lie]]: The back cover of the compilation version of The Sword of the Lictor / The Citadel of the Autarch describes the book as containing "Severian's final showdown with the evil Autarch." {{spoiler|Not only does this never happen, but to top it off, the "evil Autarch" is an affable eunach with a penchant for flamboyant attire. No, not [[Affably Evil]]. Just affable.}}

* [[Cool Sword]] - ''Terminus Est''.

** Also qualifies as a [[BFS]] -it's taller than Severian, who is said to be quite tall himself.

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

* [[Diamonds in The Buff]]: Jolenta's outfit in Dr. Talos' play. (Severian and Dorcas are completely naked.)

* 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.

* [[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]]''.}}

** Perhaps ''more'' most notably, the tomb Severian spends much of his free time in as a child {{spoiler|is his own}}. [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] because in one of the first chapters of the first book, {{spoiler|Severian specifically notes that the mummified corpse on display in the tomb has similar facial features to his own}}.

* [[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}}

** Actually the story is a mashup between Theseus and the Battle of Hampton Roads: the joke is that after so many centuries, people got the Minotaur confused with the ''Monitor.'' (There's a similar story that is a mashup of ''[[The Jungle Book (Literature)|The Jungle Book]]'' and Romulus the founder of Rome - both children raised by wolves.)

* [[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]]

* [[Improbable Weapon User]] - Severian and Agilus, during their duel, use plants whose poisonous leaves are picked and thrown like darts.

* [[Incest Is Relative]] - {{spoiler|Dorcas is Severian's grandmother, although neither of them know that at the time. Agia and Agilus are brother/sister lovers and may also be related to Severian, who has a definite thing for Agia.}}

** Severian's throwaway asides about Jolenta suggest a figure that goes right past [[Curves in All The Right Places]] to extremes that border on [[Gonk]].

* [[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.

** Maybe not just the United States. The Ascians are north of the equator, and apparently not part of the same continent as the Commonwealth, but that could include Mexico and Central America as well. (Considering how cold Severian's area is, much of the US is probably too frigid to live in.) Note that the word "Ascian" is derived from Greek and means 'without a shadow'; it's an extremely archaic term for inhabitants of the tropics (where the sun is directly overhead at noon twice a year, thus the only place where a person can stand in full direct sunlight and cast no shadow). The idea is that the common people realize the Ascians are coming from the north, but believe them to come from northern South America near the Equator rather than an entirely different continent.

** However, Wolfe himself has pointed out that one-to-one matchups of places is largely not going to work, as the novels are {{spoiler|set ''so far'' in the future that the sun is turning red, and continental drift would make places unrecognizable.}}

** Plus, because he's such an [[Unreliable Narrator]], he might have lied about every single sexual encounter he has in the entire series.

** ...which is a popular fan theory. The idea is that in Urth, male sexual promiscuity incredibly rampant. In order to establish himself as a badass Severian lied about most (if not all) his sexual encounters (which vary wildly in depiction.)

** Subverted by Loyal To The Group Of Seventeen's story.

* [[Les Yay]] - Implied between Dorcas and Jolenta during Severian's absence.

* [[The Spock]]: Severian

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To [[Jack Vance (Creator)|Jack Vance]]'s ''[[Dying Earth (Literature)|Dying Earth]]'' stories

* [[Solar CPR]]

* [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]: The Hierodules.

** 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."]]

* [[Wham Episode]]: Lake Diaturna.

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