/lit/ - Literature

Thread for discussion of Gene Wolfe's works.

When it's not concerning BoTNS+Urth, use spoilerboxes or put the title of the book you're about to spoil in the subject field.
IF YOU HAVE NOT READ BOTNS turn back now or tread carefully, it's best experienced raw.

Previous:
>>22133440

Gene Wolfe thread is here for you to air your opinions on the late Gene Wolfe, said to be the James Joyce or the Thomas Pynchon of the sci-fi and fantasy world of speculative fiction. What do you know him for? I've heard his book, The Wizard Knight, is a great piece of literature that breaks away from linearity and the expectations or conventions of his genre.

The Wizard Knight edition.

>Interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_mEpLK8cWE

>Blurb
“[Wolfe] should enjoy the same rapt attention we afford to Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy.” —The Washington Post on The Knight

“Gene Wolfe is the smartest, subtlest, most dangerous writer alive today, in genre or out of it. This book [is] important and wonderful.” —Neil Gaiman on The Knight

>Epub
https://mega.nz/fm/2t5TBCSD

/GWG/ - Gene Wolfe General
The number of people I see on here not getting Gene Wolfe's masterpiece is unbelievable. Read up on the religious symbolism ffs!
BotNS is my favorite fantasy series. First of all, it's anti-sjw. Severian knows exactly what women are. Gene Wolfe is a conservative and you know he's an /ouguy//
Second of all, it's mature. This isn't your average teenager's novel to say the least! Haha. Let's just say there's a lot of rape and our protagonist is a torturer, so you're going to get a lot of mature themes covered in these books.
Secondly, there's so many layers of this book it's unbelievable someone was smart enough to come up with all this! I'm not just talkig about the plot, which is Dark Souls esque in not holding your hand explaining the plot (hence mature!). There's all sorts of hidden secrets, yes, (holy shit Severian was fucking his grandmother that whole time? so fucking weird), but the highlight of the series is the religious undertones and the rich imagery. For instance i loved the image of Severian describing his first execution (he's an executioner too, this is not some baby book where the protag is some nice pure guy!) "I raised Terminus Est (name of his sword) up, blocking out the sun" WOW.
If you don't like these books, frankly, you are an idiot. Good day.

Previous thread reached its autosage limit. Gene Wolfe discussion, aboriginal edition, in lieu of the Aramini parody drama.

Point of discussion: Has any writer, genre or otherwise, written as eloquently as Wolfe on the subject of clonal progeny? What about identity assimilation?

>It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future. The locked and rusted gate that stood before us, with wisps of river fog threading its spikes like the mountain paths, remains in my mind now as the symbol of my exile. That is why I have begun this account of it with the aftermath of our swim, in which I, the torturer's apprentice Severian, had so nearly drowned.

Just finished 'Urth of The New Sun'. This shit was so fucking rad. Urth wasn't quite as great as the Book of The New Sun, but Severian is such a great narrator that it was still fun to read.
The ending of Urth seemed rather abrupt and kind of an odd place to stop. What do you think Wolfe was trying to do by ending there?
Do 'Long Sun' and 'Short Sun' live up to the "New Sun'? I'm going to read them because I'm hooked, but I can't see what else he could add that would make them really great.

Also, are Erebus and Abaia really just giant monsters? What's the deal with them?