Weighing a Critique: The Book of the New Sun

It has been a pleasure to discover the blog Weighing a pig doesn't fatten it. Exposing the growing number of gray hairs in my beard, I can say it reminds me of my blog a decade ago—back before two children, middle management, a house, garden, and all the other exigencies of life chipped away at my time and energy, leaving me without the sass and verve needed to really dissect a book from a critically informed viewpoint. Bormgans has that energy and layers of cultural and literary knowledge beyond just 'I liked it.' to give books their due.

Reading through his (I assume a gentleman, maybe I'm wrong) blog a few weeks ago, I encountered a re-read critique of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. Wolfe's four-part novel is one I too hold in high regard, and having just finished a summer holiday, a time after which I typically re-read a book, I thought why not? It's been a decade since I last read New Sun. Let's give it another go and see how it compares to Bormgans' take. Maybe I can find a spot of energy for that...

So, what follows is a minor critique of a critique. As you will discover, a lot of the 'critique' is in fact a bolstering, an adding to, a crossbeam in support of Bormgans' view. I think he departs from several commonly held views of the book in quality, logical, defendable fashion. Nevertheless, there are a couple points I would alter, or add to—I hope with the respect and constructiveness that the original critique warrants. Here we go.

I will start by summarizing the two main points of Bormgans' critique. (I will not go into the discourse on free will.)

1. BotNS is not a puzzle to unravel (specifically, Severian as an unreliable narrator does not greatly alter the narrative for it, Wolfe is not an illusionist who has created a hall of mirrors, and the book's prose is not structurally unclear)

2. BotNS has religious/mystical goals (details to come...)

Regarding #1, absolutely agreed. The Book of the New Sun is not a puzzle to piece together in some clever, condescendingly gotcha! kind of way. Yes, Wolfe does occasionally use obtuse language. But it's never used to hide anything of key importance to the import of the narrative. Most typically it's used to describe objects or animals, things which are incidental rather than pivotal, and does more to bolster the science fiction-ness of the setting than elucidate underlying meaning or coherency.

Yes, Wolfe does describe Severian as having perfect memory, or more precisely, Severian describes himself as having a perfect memory, something which we know is not humanly possible. In turn, Severian relates things as he sees them, i.e. there is no omniscient, third-person narrator to explain what's “really” happening. We get everything through Severian's eyes, and if he is to be human, that means he doesn't see reality objectively, which makes things, voila, subjective indeed. That being said, Severian is oh-so-often helpful. Many are the times he later realizes something and informs the reader. He doesn't seem to be using his 'perfect memory' as a way of hiding something. To my knowledge, there are no overt or key moments in the narrative in which Severian remembers X, but the reality of the narrative later proves to be Y. Inconsistencies there are (sayeth Yoda), but none which disrupt or turn the reader's understanding of the overarching story on its head.

And yes, inexplicable things happen in the story. A good example is the death of young Severian. The boy does something innocuous, and pays the ultimate price. Why? The paranoid reader may feel this moment is part of some larger conspiracy on Wolfe's part, that he has embedded a 'dark state' plot that only the truly perceptive can know of. Bullshit. I would rather argue it's a moment that should cause the reader to pause and reflect on the book's far future setting, not to mention the intentions of the two-headed monster who is/was nearby. Taking this scene forward another step, part of its “inexplicability” is that the book is neither science fiction or fantasy in their strictest senses. It's a fantasy-style narrative laid upon a science fiction setting, an aspect that often gives rise to a juxtaposition of intuition and understanding. How can Severian be a member of a Medieval-esque guild yet fly in rocket ships? How can he ride around with horse and sword yet still be subject to laser pistols? But that's how the far future logically could/should be—a mix of evolution and de-evolution. Given our view to history is one which has only seen humanity on the technological upswing, such a mix of Medieval and futuristic becomes mysterious, intriguing, and clearly for some readers, confusing to the point of accusing Wolfe of playing tricks. Such is not the case.

Upon first reading New Sun and now re-reading it, I get a very minimal sense Wolfe is attempting to pull the wool over the reader's eyes, to play 'literary tricks' through Severian's first-person POV. If he considers it important to the narrative, we learn of it, which doesn't seem an illusion at all. Everything else is to be chalked up to said mix of evolution and devolution, odd vocabulary included.

One “puzzle” that is clear, however, is Wolfe's overall intent. While I have a view what The Book of the New Sun is “about”, so too do Bormgans and several other critical thinkers, no two exactly alike. On to point #2.

Where I would take a different course from Bormgans in interpreting The Book of the New Sun is in its main theme/purpose. As stated, Bormgans writes that the book has religious/mystical goals, specifically that the “...the book is a celebration of the mystery of creation, the mystery of existence, the mystery of life.” To be clear off the bat, these elements exist in enough quantity to build a defendable argument, which Bormgans has. Indeed, the afore-mentioned juxtaposition of fantasy and science fiction is one of the elements informing the story's aura. In fact, I don't have anything to poke holes in it save that I believe there is a theme which arches even higher.

The Book of the New Sun is a first-person narrative, and save the obligatory once-per-novel digression into tale telling, the reader never leaves Severian's viewpoint. The plot of the novel is also built on Severian. It's his Campbellian journey—life in the guild, exile, and triumphant return—which form the core of the plot. Key to this is that the reader is not privy to everything that happens to Severian in his journey. As directly stated, Severian has selected the moments he considers critical, the waypoints leading up to his/the novel's grand conclusion. I point out this Severian-based centrism as I believe it's in the man's life more than his environment, literal or figurative, that we find the book's main theme, namely Severian as the 'moral hero'.

Reading through The Book of the New Sun, the pattern I observe, the palimpsest in stone, is the display and development of Severian's character . He experiences moments where he must go against his nature and fulfill his social duty, acts that in turn strengthen his character. He experiences moments where his all-too-human emotions get in the way of said duty, and he falters for human reasons. There are encounters with people (and aliens, it must be stated) which put his ethical values on full display. There are scenes where good and evil are relatively, clearly defined (the early going with Agia and her brother, for example), and Severian takes relevant, moral action. And yet still there are scenes where right and wrong are not so easily ascribed (dealings with Baldanders, the “revolutionary” war, the village of shamans, the green man, etc.). Through these, Severian must contextualize the actualities of his circumstances and learn from what he has done in the past to make a decision or take an action for the present and future. The crux of all this seems to be a person trying to be a better person for himself and others.

The object symbolizing Severian's ethical development and evolution is the claw of the conciliator. But, interestingly, it starts with Terminus Est. By giving Severian a “powerful sword” in Shadow of the Torturer, the reader assumes “Ahh, I know this narrative territory. Hero, mythical sword, adventure awaits!” But readers of New Sun know it doesn't, at least in the typical sense. There is no dramatic slaying of a dragon or tyrant in a climactic scene. Rather, the sword is broken. The claw, however, survives. It evolves in form, from jewel to special thorn to common object—symbolism, no?—and survives the story intact. A healer as fantasy hero? Yes, says Wolfe. And one step further: a leader who instead of putting himself in people's shoes, has their shoes and everything else put in his brain thanks to the Autarch's alzabo elixir. In the beginning of the series it was his own, personal interests which were front and center. But by the conclusion the elixir has put him in a position where compassion for others goes hand in hand with his own interests. That is Wolfe's 'moral hero', the just man.

I sometimes have the thought: “What would aliens think of humanity, seeing us do the things that we do?” Plastic surgery, Twitter comments, Parisian high fashion... the Holocaust. In the Book of the New Sun, Wolfe seems to ask the same question, but from a more literary, considered position. With all its faults, is humanity worth it? Should their sun be allowed to burn out such that their species is finally wiped from the universe, thus to cause no more harm? Or, are they worth redemption—does their soul tip the scales far enough to the side of 'good' to get another shot at chasing utopia? I think Severian is the point on which those questions are to be answered in Wolfe's mind

The last note I would add here is that I feel I'm cheating a little. The theme of 'moral hero' is often found in Wolfe's works. The Knight, The Wizard, Pirate Freedom, and to a good degree the three Latro novels, all have a similar, undercurrent despite the outward differences. And of course there is Urth of the New Sun, a book which literally brings all of the characters of New Sun into a courtroom setting for Severian to be tried and judged worthy of redemption on behalf of humanity. Some have compared Severian to Christ, and while there is an argument to be made, I think Wolfe was aiming for something more universal, a little more fallible in his “hero”. Like cavemen living with dinosaurs, it is, after all, difficult to reconcile Jesus in a setting with hierodules... An everyday man (carpenter, maybe?) learning and trying to incorporate that learning into being a better man worthy of representing a normal man.

And that's it. My light-weight response to Bormgans' critique of The Book of the New Sun. I agree, absolutely the book is nowhere near as obfuscated as some people would have it be. My guess is many of those people are fooled by the panoply—pun intended. It looks like an epic fantasy duck, often smells like an epic fantasy duck, and occasionally sounds like an epic fantasy duck, therefore, they reason it must be an epic fantasy duck. But such is not the case. Baldanders is no cyclops. The alzabo is no dragon. Voldamus is no Voldemort. And Agia is no Poison Ivy. Things are as presented. The real conflict, and therefore the real center of the book, is instead inside Severian: how he carries himself as a human among humans (and aliens!), and is to be judged for it. Sense of wonder does abound in TBoftNS. Every three or four chapters a delightful, unique piece of imagination wholly captures the reader's own imagination. And many of them do not come with explanations of any kind, except that they 'are', which sets the mystical/magical radar spinning. Accordingly, I would agree that these scenes and moments contribute mightily to tone and feel of the novel, likewise to meaning. The reader should be taken into a lofty mental state to contemplate the story. But through it all it is the presentation of Severian's soul. Put through multiple scenarios, his decisions and actions are on full display for the reader to judge him a 'moral hero', or not. Taking that one step further, if humanity's underlying value and worth were to be judged based on his life, should we be acquitted or found guilty? Wolfe says: acquit!

At least so I believe. As stated, there are other informed, defendable positions out there, Bormgams certainly included. And all that without getting into the meta-fictional aspects of story, and story within story, such is the greatness of The Book of the New Sun.

And it would not be fair to close this 'critique' without a thank you to Bormgams for kicking me in the ass to read Wolfe's masterpiece again. There are books worth re-reading multiple times, and this is one. Thanks for that. And if you haven't visited Weighing a Pig Doesn't Fatten It, do.