The Claw of the Conciliator: Chapter IX
The Cultellarii
When Jonas and I had come to Saltus, our path had threaded hills of debris from the mines, hills composed largely of broken stone and brick. When I had ridden on the false errand of Agia’s letter, I had galloped past more of these, though my route had lain chiefly through the forest at its nearest approach to the village. Now we went among the heaps of tailings where there was no path. Here, in addition to much rubble, the minders had cast all they had brought forth from the buried past that might otherwise have defamed their village and occupation. Everything foul lay in tumbled heaps ten times and more the height of the baluchither’s lofty back—obscene statues, canted and crumbling, and human bones to which strips of dry flesh and hanks of hair still clung. And with them ten thousand men and women; those who, in seeking a private resurrection, had rendered their corpses forever imperishable lay here like drunkards after their debauch, their crystal sarcophagi broken, their limbs relaxed in grotesque disarray, their clothing rotted or rotting, and their eyes blindly fixed upon the sky.
I love this kind of imagery that Wolfe just casts around so freely, like it’s nothing, rather than a grand edifice of worldbuilding. We’ve seen already how people rob the graves of the dead in the necropolis, but here we see it at an obscene scale. People ravaging the past, leaving its guts spilling over the landscape.
This is Urth.
Also, what the hell is a baluchither? As we learned in the Appendix to the first volume, we shouldn’t take this entirely literally. Severian is not currently sitting on the back of this ancient beast but is instead on some rough approximation of it.
Though this chapter is one of Severian being captured, we see him meet Vodalus as essentially an equal.
This is interesting.
Severian is telling us this story and while many people will ask how unreliable is his unreliability, I think saying that Severian is lying is the most boring interpretation of the series, if only because of course he’s lying, sometimes.
And I wonder if, here, he is twisting the truth to present himself in a very specific light. He describes the men who capture him and Jonas as basically scoundrels. This justifies, in a sense, him killing them, even though they’re Vodalus’ men and theoretical allies.
But this also allows him to come into Vodalus’ throne room standing tall and alone atop this giant beast so when it stops at his dais, Severian is able to step down and meet him face to face before offering his service.
Did it really happen like this?
Maybe!
But imagine how different the image created her would differ had Severian been bound and thrown before Vodalus as the executioner of Vodalus’ man in Saltus?
And to a certain extent, it may not matter for all that comes after, but I do think the image of Severian standing as an equal, reminding Vodalus of his past service, and then vowing service once more, makes quite the striking image. Perhaps too striking of an image.
For remember: this Book of the New Sun is Severian’s propaganda to his people as their Autarch.
Of course, it may have happened exactly like this, which is why Vodalus and his followers were so willing to accept Severian, despite him dropping corpses of their companions at his feet.
And does it matter?
Does any of my insistent focus on Severian’s presentation of his story actually matter?
Well, no. Not if you just want to read the book without digging into the meat and gristle. But I do think this is part of what fascinates about The Book of the New Sun. Because while it is an epic adventure, it’s also a psychological portrait of one of the most peculiar characters in literature.
Is Severian a reliable narrator?
I think this is starting at the wrong place. Rather, we can take the context of this story, as defined by him, and try to see where his story may be used in his service. Because we all lie, at least a bit, when telling people about ourselves or our pasts. We are always the heroes of our own lives and so it makes sense that we present ourselves in a favorable light.
But what’s interesting about Severian is that he also shows us his failures and the ways he’s been duped or led astray. Half of Shadow of the Torturer is really about him being fooled and led on a quixotic quest by Agia where her only goal was to kill and loot him.
This could have been a single chapter or even just a few paragraphs, but instead it’s nearly half of the first novel.
That’s interesting. That’s weird.
And the weirdness draws us in further and it pulls us towards Severian and the manner of his telling, more than the simple telling itself.
This, too, is weird and interesting. That the manner of telling begins to take on gravity, dragging us along at a current underneath the words on the page detailing his journey from torturer’s apprentice to Autarch.
And it’s taken hundreds of pages but we’re finally back with Vodalus. A ring is closing, pieces falling into place that were laid out on page two of the previous novel.
Let us see where next we go.
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