Over the last year I have become interested in the science fiction of Gene Wolfe. Because of various posts on the Urth List concerning the reliability of Severian as the narrator of The Book of the New Sun, Volume 1 and Volume 2 I have become intrigued by this idea of the dishonest narrator.
The entire concept at first took me by suprise when I saw it mentioned. If the narrator of a book is not telling the truth then what exactly is the purpose of the book? I am the type that gets annoyed when Star Trek contradicts itself or when books and movies don’t match. I want to believe the story they are telling (as fiction, of course) but the point of what really happened isn’t the same when the story is different. Compare the books and the movies of The Lord of The Rings for instance.
I don’t think that the way I deal with fiction is too out of the ordinary. People tend to want fiction that is consistent and believable. I know lots of people with the whole sci-fi genre for instance that don’t like it because it’s “not real” (as opposed to other regular fiction which is real). The question pops into my mind – Why do we tend to trust fiction? Why do we instinctively believe that the narrrator is all knowing on the topic at hand. If the style or facts is such that we can’t believe the story we chalk it up to poor writing – not dishonest narration.
Unbelievers won’t allow positive assumptions to be made about the writers of the Bible. They assume that many of the writers (or redactors) were dishonest narrators who were inventing a religion. We conservative Christians can’t believe whole-heartedly the daily news or reporters like Dan Rather. We know that we have often been lied to. It seems to me from last year’s election that John Kerry has throughout his life pushed a falsehood which is his concept of the Vietnam War. We believe what we want to when it comes to the news and the happenings around us. I remember reading and article in the Chalcedon Report a couple of years ago in which the author mentioned series with episodes that never happened. He specifically named The Last Battle from the Chronicles of Narnia and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In that author’s view these stories were part of a larger series and these specific stories could not have happened. They didn’t fit.
Because of falsehoods in the news, history books, public schools, congressional testimony, campaign promises, and our pulpits we need to be able to discern the turth. We can look at the Chronicles of Narnia and debate whether The Last Battle should have been written the way it was or whether it really happened in its context. We can watch the news every day and wonder what is really true. We can read scientific studies that contradict the Bible. We need to know where our foundation is. The Bible is either true with faithful narrative or it is a false book that happens to include some true stuff. We can’t throw out Genesis 1-2 because it doesn’t fit with our science. We can’t twist the meanings of words and phrases because they don’t agree with our eschatology as we “see” it. The Bible means something and it is faithful. We may not always understand it instantly but we can know it is true. People can continually present “facts” that seem to disprove the Bible but prove their idiocy. They basically claim that they are omniscient and know all of the facts. They fail to take into account that the God who wrote the Bible may have access to more facts than they do.
I have digressed slightly from my main idea which was being intrigued by the unfaithful narrator. Sometimes it would probably be helpful to have a more real view of literature and realize that the fictional narrator who saw the events may just be writing his viewpoint and not what “really happened.” Looking at it this way may help total contradictions to make more sense if that is possible.
I haven’t posted for a while and decided I wanted to write a little more about Gene Wolfe’s books. I have finished Shadow & Claw, Sword & Citadel, and Urth of the New Sun. I really liked the series but have to admit that there was a lot of times in the story where I didn’t really understand what was going on. Because the books are written in the first person I actually think this whole feeling contributed to the story. There was a lot of times when Severian (the author) didn’t know what was going on and therefore I the reader didn’t either. By the end of Urth of the New Sun there were many ideas brought up that I only had a vague understanding of what was going on. I don’t really want to talk to much about those things here though because it would give away a lot to people who haven’t gotten a chance to either finish the books or read tham at all.
I would highly recommend these books and I plan on reading anything else by Wolfe that I can get my hands on. Currently though I want to get Lexicon Urthus. I bid for a copy of it on eBay the other day but it went for $131 dollars in the end. I can’t afford to spend that much at the moment. I get the impression from what others have said that the info that is compiled in it would be very helpful for the more obscure items in the New Sun cycle.
To find out more info on Gene Wolfe books and to read ideas from other fans you can subscribe to the Urth List. I subscribed when John Barach commented about it earlier. The list has been helpful in seeing that many other readers are trying to work out what is going on. It is good to read posts by others who have read the series a lot more and really do seem to understand what is going on.
I just finished reading Shadow & Claw which contains the first two volumes of The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I really like the book and would recommend it to anyone. I became interested in Gene Wolfe after seeing the Gene Wolfe Interview conducted by James Jordan. I like most of what I’ve read by James Jordan and have also liked the Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith which Jordan recommends.
In the first chapter of Shadow & Claw a statement is made that grabbed my interest and has caused me to want to understand more of what the author intended. The narrator says the following after the main character Severian is given a coin:
We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges. When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin, an asimi stamped with the profile of the Autarch. Their acceptance of that coin is their acceptance of the special duties and burdens of military life–they are soldiers from that moment, though they may know nothing of the management of arms. I did not know that then, but it is a profound mistake to believe that we must know of such things to be influenced by them, and in fact to believe so is to believe in the most debased and superstitious kind of magic. The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all.
This statement is very interesting to me because each day I am seeing more and more how a true understanding of symbols is lacking in the religious circles I grew up in. Most of those people think that symbols mean nothing unless I do something to give them meaning. The fact is that symbols have meaning whether I understand or not. This includes Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both of these symbols affect the individual and are not effected by the individual.
I am looking forward to reading Sword & Citadel which contains the third and forth parts of The Book of the New Sun. I am enjoying Gene Wolfe so far and expect that to continue. I eventually want to get into some Jack Vance who is supposed to write in a similar style.
John Barach posted today on Gene Wolfe’s Storeys from the Old Hotel. I had tried to buy it before after seeing it mentioned at the Gene Wolfe fan page that references James Jordan’s interest in his works. Storeys from the Old Hotel is not available new from Amazon.com but I found it on BookCloseOuts.com for $3.49 (retail is $14.95). I was even more excited when I discovered that they currently have 14 titles by Gene Wolfe in stock at incredible prices. The also have 6 titles by Jack Vance who is an author I first saw linked to on Jeff Meyers’ blog. I ordered Storeys from the Old Hotel, Sword & Citadel, The Demon Princes: Volume 1, and The Demon Princes: Volume 2. I am excited about the good prices and hope that others will benefit from this too.
Recent Comments