Book of the New Sun: Shadow and Claw Vol 1 (Fantasy Masterworks) (Taschenbuch)

Gene Wolfe is occasionally accused of appealing to the baser instincts of his readers by depicting cruelty and violence in some detail in The Book of the New Sun. Although I understand why this complaint is raised against a great many authors in recent SF and fantasy, and have in fact raised it myself against some, I think it is undeserved in this particular case.

The Book of the New Sun is told from the perspective of a man who was raised a torturer. It is only natural, then, that the text occasionally touches upon the subject of what that man does, and reflects the moral world in which he was brought up - it would be weird if it didn't. It is not Wolfe's intention to give us a chance of easy identification with a hero; rather, Wolfe describes an alien world from an alien perspective. The moral bafflement that grips the reader when the 'hero' talks matter-of-factly, and with a certain pride, of his 'work', is essential to the effect of the novel. There are many things one might accuse Severian of, from a present-day perspective - beside his job there is, for example, his often rather weird attitude towards women. However, there are other reasons for reading, and especially for reading SF and fantasy, than having your own morals and opinions reaffirmed. I disagree with a lot that is said in The Book of the New Sun, but I appreciate the cycle as a genuine work of the imagination, one that manages to create a world that is not just a slightly different copy of the European Middle Ages as so many other fantasy worlds are. Fantasy (and the historical novel, too) far too often forgets that alien worlds might breed alien cultures, alien ways of thinking and feeling, even in human beings. The Book of the New Sun remembers that essential fact and makes very effective use of it by adopting the perspective of a character who must feel very strange to most readers. As a result, the world the story is set in feels strange - and that is a welcome effect in both SF and fantasy, I think.

Also, there are greater things going on in this series of books than just the description of a strange world, and for that greater plot, Severian's initial moral and professional status is essential, too. This is a tale of a torturer turned saviour, and it wouldn't be half as effective if he had been, say, a baker (or a carpenter *g*). Severian's attitude towards his work is marked by internal contradictions from the beginning: brought up to be a torturer in a society that sees torture as a necessary fact of everyday life, he is unable to question its legitimacy, but something in him rebels nevertheless. He knows pity and mercy, and as the novel progresses, these play an increasing part in his reactions to situations he finds himself in, although you have to read carefully to notice his change. The fascination of the novel derives in great part from the contradictions of the character of Severian.

On Language:

In some review of 'The Shadow of the Torturer', Wolfe is accused of indulging himself too much by using arcane and obscure vocabulary. Well, it is undeniable that The Book of the New Sun contains the greatest agglomeration of archaic, unusual or downright fantastic vocabulary I have ever seen, and I freely admit that there are sentences that leave me completely baffled. Still, I do not see what the above quoted reader's problem is. I don't need to understand every word of a given text to get the gist of it. In fact, *not* understanding certain words (but tasting them, testing them on your tongue) can contribute just as much to your *subconscious* understanding of a story. (I'm sure Tolkien would agree...) It is not really important to know what exactly armigers, matrosses or a barbican are. It is not essential to the narrative. The sound of those words, though, is. They suggest certain periods, certain cultures, a depth of time... they are as crucial to the atmosphere of the book as Wolfe's descriptions of decaying Nessus are.

So, to defend Gene Wolfe, I don't think he's indulging himself at all. (Yet if he were, would that be such a great sin? The same reviewer also accused Wolfe of having written the book for himself instead of for the readers. I say: good on him! I don't want authors to write what they think I would like to read, I want them to write what they feel they have to write, what comes from deep inside, and what they feel fulfills their own standards for a good story, a good novel. Because that is the only reliable standard there is when you're writing: your own. The same is true for all arts, I suppose. You have to believe in what you're doing. You have to do what you believe in.) So, to conclude, he's not indulging himself, he's not just showing off his huge vocabulary and his impressive command of the English language, but he is trying to create an impression of antiquity; of cultural relics from the ancient past preserved in the language of a latter day. And for me, he succeeds marvellously at that.

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