#the book of the new sun

[apesoformythoughts]

“If I had seen one miracle fail, I had witnessed another; and even a seemingly purposeless miracle is an inexhaustible source of hope, because it proves to us that since we do not understand everything, our defeats—so much more numerous than our few and empty victories—may be equally specious.”

— The Sword of the Lictor

#the sword of the lictor #the book of the new sun #gene wolfe #the romance of orthodoxy

[beedokart]

#the risen empire #johannes cabal #the book of the new sun #revelation space #just meme nonsense #revenger series #alastair reynolds

[sentientshrubbery]

It has just occurred to me that I have read three separate books in which a major plot device is the main character has a person in their head (physically).

Three separate series!!! I didn’t even plan this!!!

#this is like half the books I’ve read this year #wild #I’ll tag them but at least two of them are spoilers so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #the locked tomb #a memory called empire #the book of the new sun

[chip-and-ironicus]

I was asked to create an audio drama adaptation of a chapter of The Book of the New Sun, so I did, and it's here, and I'd really like people to listen and enjoy it. But like I was saying to a friend earlier this week, the content is not really interested in onboarding you, the listener. So I thought I'd make an introductory post to give people a handle on what this is and what's going on:

Listen to the audio drama Production Diary posts so far Poster by Gryme

Why it exists In the early 1980's Gene Wolfe published a dying earth/science fantasy cycle called The Book of the New Sun. It's presented as a memoir of the main character, Severian the Torturer, and contains a few other stories he encounters or tells along the way. Chapter 24 of the second volume, The Claw of the Conciliator, is in the form of a script for a play he performs in, written by a supporting character he encounters several times on his journey. This is a mostly word-accurate adaptation of that script into a dramatic presentation, which, as far as anyone involved knows, is the first of its kind. That's really exciting!

What's happening in its context In his journeys, Severian performs in this play twice, once each near the end of the first and second volumes of BotNS. The author, Dr. Talos, sees his play as both an outlet for his creative drive, a means of communicating more profound truths than he could in another medium, and part of a scam. They end their performances by having a cast member seem to go mad and attack the audience, then the troupe picks over and loots whatever the crowd left behind. The world of the greater narrative is in decline, a slow apocalypse of stagnant millennia, which informs the work.

What's happening in the play Eschatology and Genesis is about the rebirth of the world, and is set during the final death of the one its characters and audience live in. Religious and mythic figures arrive to witness and influence the new world coming, and mortals of various social positions are left to deal with the facts one way or another. The language is archaic and dense, but I think the cast's performance brings out what's meant, or at least the interpretation we settled on. A lot of the conventions of pre-modern and early modern theater are here, so if you remember anything from a Shakespeare unit in high school then parts of this will be familiar.

Please enjoy the show. And if you do, please spread it around. A lot of people worked very hard to make this possible, and I only hope my audio production didn't let down their contributions.

#audio drama #The Book of the New Sun #Ranged Touch #Shelved by Genre

[taravangianlistenstothebeachboys]

Okay I know I was just spitballing before about TLT being influenced alot by Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. But I finished the second book in the series and there's so much goddamn lyctorhood shit in there! Kept the details in the readbelow, but fuck man its gotta be intentional!

The obvious similarity between what the alzabo does vis a vis Severian/Thecla and what lyctorhood does for Harrow/Gideon. I have consumed you, my love. I've gorged myself on your very selfhood and turned my unfamiliar flesh into your prison. You wake within me and myself becomes yourself.

Its even richer in the wake of The Unwanted Guest. You can't find the body of Chatelain Thecla in here, she's digested, you've become of her, Severian of the Matachin Tower, Severian of the House Absolute! You cannot take another's soul into your own and expect to come out the same person! Severian has a perfect memory, and he perfectly remembers his time growing up among the apprentices of the Torturer's guild, and he perfectly remembers his time growing up among the other chosen daughters of the Exultants.

But also Harrow directly subverts a lot of Severian's whole deal in a way that seems too coincidental to write off. Severian has a perfect memory, and within it he keeps the whole of his lover's life with him past her death. Harrow forced herself to forget Gideon, and in doing so made sure a part of her stayed whole and undigested. Both of them are plagued with hallucinations, both of them are constantly wandering in a recollected past that never was, and yet while Severian's memory renders him overwhelmed by the past Harrow is falling through its absence.

Then there's also the inversion of how they die and how they're consumed. Gideon dies to save Harrow and the rest, all but forcing Harrow to consume her so her death can mean anything, so she could mean anything in death. While Severian tortures Thecla to death. Tortures her to the point of craving death, and hands her the blade (out of pity? sympathy? possessive rage?) that lets her end it quickly. And only after he leaves, only after he speaks of his love for her to everyone who'll listen, only after he meets the man causally responsible for his infatuation that he partakes of her flesh like it was a party drug.

And then there's the way you can see Severian in John. Both of them telling their audience how much the ones they killed and ate meant to them. Both of their stories predicated on their lovers no longer being there to speak of it. The ghosts of Thecla and Alecto and Dolores Haze all trapped on the magic isle of their killer's mournful, crooning, self-aggrandizing autobiographies!

It goes back to the fucking Magician's Apprentice! Its Lolita from the framework of magic and cannibalism and power! "Its about devouring somebody's life," My God!

#the locked tomb #the book of the new sun #severian #the claw of the conciliator #the unwanted guest #tamsyn muir #gene wolfe #leo says

[zakhartong-root]

~ SEVERIAN and THECLA ~ The Book of Fuligin Kickstarter is going on right now!

This anthology looks like it's going to be an amazing book with an incredibly talented crew lined up. Some of my recent favorite artists have stories in here and I can't wait to get at them!

I am not part of it but wanted to do a piece just to point some people in that direction. But please check it out if you enjoy extremely weird scifi/fanstasy worlds.

#the book of the new sun #New Sun #severian #thecla #gene wolfe #kickstarter #comics #comic art #illusrtration

[best-childhood-book]

I have some books/series recommendations for the fantasy poll - I’ll send more when I get home and actually get to look at my shelves

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock (series)

The Black Company by Glenn Cook (series)

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (series)

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe (series)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

The Cemeteries of Amalo by Katherin Addison (series)

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir (series)

Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones (series, sequel is Year of the Griffin)

I’ll think of more when I see my shelves. I’d recommend the Earthsea series 100 times, but I figure it’s already been submitted. Cheers - and thanks for doing these. They’re a lot of fun.

You are correct, Earthsea has already been submitted lol

I added all of these, and god, I love The Locked Tomb!

#ask #submission #elric of melnibone #the black company #the 13 clocks #the book of the new sun #the wizard knight #the goblin emperor #the cemeteries of amalo #the locked tomb #derkholm

[208tinyhorses]

Mycroft Canner vs Severian

Based on having read the entire Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer and only Shadow of the Torturer, the first book of the Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Costume Severian: Cool mask, cloak blacker than black, no shirt Mycroft Canner: Weird hat, robes or something? Winner: Severian

Sword Severian: Terminus Est Mycroft Canner: Does not even have a sword Winner: Severian Torture Severian: Trained his entire life to be skilled in all forms of torture Mycroft Canner: Enthusiastic amateur Winner: In a surprise upset, Mycroft Canner Respecting Women Severian: F- Mycroft Canner: C Winner: Mycroft Canner

Narration Severian: Unreliable Mycroft Canner: Also unreliable Winner: Tie

#Terra Ignota #Mycroft Canner #Severian #The Book of the New Sun #not really fair to judge Severian before finishing the series #but I'm doing it anyway #my posts

[gilgalahad]

#the book of the new sun #faux book covers

[jonaswpoetry]

A ninth for sating them

Severian has so far struck eight

times over, and my flambeaulic

writhing’s been quite quenched

—

by agony’s icy deluge, yet I’ve

breath warm enough to whisper

past every spectator’s contorted

—

expression of malevolent (albeit

righteous) ecstasy: on when the

excruciator deals his subsequent

—

castigation, will you not possibly

fall beneath its justice alongside

me, without a spark’s hesitation?

@nosebleedclub June Prompts 9. Lash

#nosebleedclub #poetry #writing #spilled ink #poetsontumblr #my poetry #prompt #lash #severian #the book of the new sun #the claw of the conciliator

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

#scifi #books #The Shadow of the Torturer #Gene Wolf #The Book of the New Sun #poll #the first poll apparently was only for 24 hours so we're trying this again! #result: no #l: English

[apesoformythoughts]

“It is impossible, I think, that all the symbols we see in natural landscapes are there only because we see them. No one hesitates to brand as mad the solipsists who truly believe that the world exists only because they observe it and that buildings, mountains, and even ourselves (to whom they have spoken only a moment before) all vanish when they turn their heads. Is it not equally mad to believe that the meaning of the same objects vanishes in the same way?

[…] The great question, then, that I pondered as I watched the floating island with longing eyes and chafed at my bonds and cursed the hetman in my heart, is that of determining what these symbols mean in and of themselves. We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.”

— The Sword of the Lictor

#the sword of the lictor #the book of the new sun #gene wolfe

[beedokart]

Glass and Severian are probably a very chaotic combination.

Warren and Thecla would be more chill.

#the book of the new sun #severian #inhibitor phase #revelation space #warglass #apparently the new sun series is a favourite of alastair reynolds’? #so there were probably direct influences #honestly mostly doing this so I could draw Severian’s blacker than black cloak #by colouring it the same as line art

[beedok]

Severian: “She helped kill me.” ”Helped kill you?” Severian: “… I got better.”

#shadow of the torturer #the book of the new sun #severian #this book is strange

[radonx9]

Severian overlooking the Citadel

#radonx9 #myart #fan art #the book of the new sun #severian #gene wolfe #fantasy art #scifi art #scifibooks

[taravangianlistenstothebeachboys]

For all the fans that follow me for the nebulous group of fandoms I post about that can only be grouped as “genre fiction,” I heartily recommend the new podcast “Shelved By Genre.” It’s done by Ranged Touch, a network also known for Homestuck Made This World, Game Theory Study Buddies, Just King Things, etc, and I definetly recommend checking out their other stuff if you haven’t.

It does deep-dives into representative genre fiction series, with their first episode discussing the first six chapters of Gene Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer, the first book in his The Book of the New Sun series. I started reading it so I could listen along to the podcast, and I think that fans of The Locked Tomb will get a lot out of the series. It shares a similar place of genre weirdness as tlt, with court intrigue, sword and sorcery, and far-future sci-fi elements mixed together for a very unique world. It has a similar willingness to mix “literary” and “low-brow” references throughout, with pulp fiction, Proust, and obscure Catholic saints being its major touchstones. It’s main character Severian comes from a similar tradition as Gideon and Harrow in being raised as part of an alien and feared religious tradition which he has a complicated relationship with. Wolfe and Muir share a similar tendency for narrators who don’t give much detail about what they’re not focused on, often at the expense of the reader’s understanding of the plot, which encourages a reading style that Harrow fans especially will be familiar with. I would not be surprised if Wolfe is an influence on Muir. All this to say, tlt fans should definitely check out book of the new sun, and they should listen to Shelved By Genre as they do it.

#ranged touch #shelved by genre #the book of the new sun #the locked tomb #the shadow of the torturer #gene wolfe #tamsyn muir #leo says #leo reads tbotns