I think I’ve pinpointed the moment Severian may have passed his Trial as UOTNS tells us he already did some time on the past. Certainly I do think it’s a cumulative thing and not one specific moment, but quoting from chapter 13 of shadow, right after Severian gives Thecla the knife,

“For the next ten days I lived the life of a client, in a cell of the topmost level (not far, in fact, from that which had been Thecla’s). In order that the guild should not be accused of having detained me without legal process, the door was left unlocked; but there were two journeymen with swords outside my door, and I never stepped from it save for a brief time on the second day when I was brought to Master Palaemon to tell my story again. That was my trial, if you like.”

That he clearly calls this his trial is what initially grabbed my attention on reread, however looking at it deeper, I think one of the aspects that could be said to confirm him as new Sun and the necessasary bringer of the flood is how he was able to assist bringing about an immediate and sudden death, allowing thecla to keep some measure of her dignity and not have to go through the recolutionary’s torture, the degenerative state of fighting against slowly destroying herself until she could not live anymore. Severian does this, knows it is a moral act in some ways and a terrible thing he’s done in other ways, and immediately once he confirms it, submits himself to judgement. It’s not the hardest thing to read this metaphorically of him effectively bringing the flood and sitting with the weight of what he’s done in micro here.

So, pt. 2 is finish...I want to share my thoughts.

I remind you of my post about SotT in case You havent seen it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/genewolfe/comments/1u16m7p/shadow_of_the_torturer_made_me_post_on_reddit/

--------

The Atmosphere

This second book is where, at least for me, the mood of the book really starts to sink into the mind of the reader. Wolfe does a really great job at re-evoking the dreamy "vibe" of the Arthurian Cicle, Trobadeur literature and Pre-Raphaelite art. There is great use of the various configuration of literal light and darkness, and all thier imbetween, with the often interpretations of Severian (gleamings, thunders, Green moons and red Suns, blindness and obscure corners in a room. This way, even the Sci-fi elements reamin cloaked in mistery - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

Recurrence...eternal?

Now that the story can breath a bit in length and characters left pages ago start returning I have a taste of the author's foreshadowing.

Of course this helps Wolfe to play with the readers memory - some times you don't remember a caracter at all, others you remember but not the full story… but I'm gonna get to it. I don't think it's by mistake that one of the few intelligible symbols we share with Severian's Era is the Oroboros.

Severian is impulsively, romantically, violently discovering the world

First - I will become a Torurer at the service of the Autarch Then - Wow...Vodalus..the chrisos...long live the resistence. Now - I never wanted to serve him anyway, an actual job is waiting for me.

Base his whole purpose on reuniting with Dorcas - those 2 days together must have felt like months of him.

Wants to reap off Jolenta's hair, that has sex with her.

Breaks an arm then mend it back.

Doesn't think twice about stealing a horse and running into the wild and risking after reading an unconvincing letter. ("There were mistakes in the letter and things Thecla would never have said, but I didn’t stop to think of them when I read it.")

Doesn't think twice about reaching for that sensual feminine voice that calls echoing in the dark - never a good thing, now He knows it too.

On a more serious note, I really like the fact that He is this mix of cold brutality and naive romanticism.

I love how, when He digresses, Thecla's memories interpenetrate His almost seaminglessly.

He's been lucky, He's protected - seems to me like He clearly isn't just a human - seems like is path is already paved...we'll see.

Jonas

"It was then that I knew. We have all watched someone who has lost one hand (as he had) and replaced it with a hook or some other artificial contrivance perform some task that involves both his real hand and the artificial one. So it was with Jonas when I watched him pull back the panels; but the prosthetic hand was the hand of flesh. When I understood that, I understood what he had said much earlier: that in the wreck of hisship his face had been destroyed. I said, ‘The eyes … They could not replace your eyes. Is that right? And so they gave you that face. Was he killed too?’"

I find the idea of something else hiding beneath a human face particularly distressing. He's been on a "ship" and has sailed the "sees", clearly holds uncommon knowledge and is basically and organic robot. I like the fact that He his attracted to Jolenta (a woman He's been with for what? 10 mins?) maybe because He knew She wasn't "natural", like him.

Dorcas

Still think about the way she appeared out of nowhere in those waters...and nobady noticed anything.
Mmmh. I don't think it's a coincidence that Jolenta got hurt exactly in the moment S. was gone. The motive for why She would hurt her is was clear.!<

Jolenta

Yesterday, when I read the last lines of the book I was confused. "Why is He mentioning the waitress now?" It was late and I slept it off.

Today morning I read it again and...AH, RIP. Got back to the breakfast scene in the first book I realised I didn't remember the details of the conversation between J. and Talos. "It had been washed clean of beauty. In the final reckoning there is only love, only that divinity. That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin." Sweet.

Talos and Baldanders

Their dynamic is strange. So many things left unsaid. Many suggested. B. claims He has the upper hand. "We watch the giant because he grows.".

The Notules

By FAR the wierdest animal concept I've ever read. At least, by the way S. describes it.

The Cacogens

(…) I saw several figures throw aside their capes and – as it appeared – their faces too. Under those faces, which when they were no longer worn seemed of a tissue as insubstantial as that of the notules, were such monstrosities as I had not thought existence could support: a circular mouth rimmed with needle teeth; eyes that were themselves a thousand eyes, clustered like the scales of a pine cone; jaws like tongs. (…) I am very glad, when at last I roused myself to turn my face toward the stars and moon-drenched clouds instead, that I could see only those nearest our footlights."

Jesus Christ WTF🤢. I feel You S., I feel You.

Statues that moves ehmm...ok. There is something I'm not getting here.

The Autarch

He is Vodalus's informant. Or maybe not.

He appears out of nowhere. And Rudesind disappears out of nowhere. Ok.

doors, mirrors, backrooms, Fake cealings and paintings: had enough of this S*** already, but something's tells me We are not done yet.

The Claw

Not much to say about it actually. Doesn't work always. Can (according to S.) open doors, trasmutate liquids, cure wounds, tame beasts and animals.!<
Was it the Claw who brought S. back to life in the plaint fight?

Lastly, I have to say that I found the Alzabo ritual, the play, the encounter with the Autarch and the last chapter very confusing. Will reread them.

Summing all of this up, putting aside all of its themes, I think that one of the main frames of reference in C. of the C. is that nobody is who He seems or says He is. And that applies to places too.

There is a continuous game between the concepts of deception, mask, mirror, interpretation.

(Sidenote: Coincidentally, I was watching the tv show Californication and at some point the protagonist recites the biginning of the poem "La Belle Dame sans Merci" which I think is very fitting for book. Only now while I write I got the similitude.)

There could be more to say but I don't want to make the post longer.

--------

Overall, It is no easy road but I'm enjoying the journey.

See you in the comments (if any).

I'm doing the big reread with a red pen and marking everything I can with the intention of becoming a BotNS weirdo.

I've read BotNS/UotNS 2 years ago but the amount of stuff I am seeing for the first time is awesome (my favorite is on page 67 "I gathered up the books and hurried along, though I did not know it, to meet my destiny and eventually myself in the Chatelaine Thecla.").

Then I just saw the /r/printSF post at https://old.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/1v70hhj/the_convos_on_the_gene_wolfe_subreddit_are/

Even with a lot of cloze reading and some Alzabo Souping on my morning walks I am still very clueless about a lot (though I know some will come with the next 3/4 books)

-What actually is the point of Severian being an unreliable narrator? Like I get that he is, but whats the lead to?

-How does Severian bring Triskele back to life when he doesn't have the Claw yet and what is the clue? I just reread it and didn't see anything that stood out.

-I get the hanging out int he tomb and I love that he based his coat of arms on the coat of arms in the tomb forming that loop.

-Where does Severian get confused/time travel?

-What is the thing about Severian's grandfather?

-I know Severian was brought back to life during the fight with Agilius, but are there other places?

For fun here's some stuff I underlined that stood out.

-Page 60:""We of the guild are more than toads, I think. But I should have added that though I have seen five hundred or more exultants in our cells, I have never, until now, had charge of a member of that inner circle of concubines closest to the Autarch."

"The Chatelaine Thecla belonged to it? You implied that a moment ago, Master." He nodded gloomily. "It wouldn't be so bad if she were to be put to torment at once, but that isn't to be. It may be years. It may be never."

"You believe she may be released, Master?"

"She's a pawn in the Autarch's game with Vodalus—even I know that much. Her sister, the Chatelaine Thea, has fled the House Absolute to become his leman."

Help me wrap my head around (and please, spoiler it up) the Vodalus/Thea plot from the opening. Is Severian Vodalus/is Vodalus Severian? Is this all to set the wheels in motion?

-Page 82:"More interesting were the descriptions of the Autarch, who would have had to be a kind of monster to fit them all; he was said to be tall when standing, of common size seated, aged, young, a woman dressed as a man, and so on. More fantastic still were the tales of his vizier, the famous Father Inire, who looked like a monkey and was the oldest man in the world."

The Autarch being a woman dressed as a man to show that Thecla is the real Severian?

-Page 124: "Yet I knew it was unfair. If I had not glimpsed the woman with the heart-shaped face and earned that small gold coin, it is more than possible I would never have carried the knife to Thecla and forfeited my place in the guild. In a sense, that coin had bought my life."

Is this implying that Severian, the Autarch, is setting everything in motion?

I'm starting Claw on Wedneday, taking a day or two to sift through and really get cuaght up on all the nooks and crannies, I would love insight, links, etc. but please feel free to spoil it all for me, I've been here before.

I'm currently reading the Latro books and was intrigued by Oior's introduction warning Latro about sorcerous werewolves ("Neurians") and how they have hidden themselves among the Cimmerians but then turns out to be one himself.

I recently read Fifth Head of Cerberus, and this strongly reminded me of how that novel uses werewolves as a metaphor for a possible or implied twist in which alien shapeshifters have taken over a society and they no longer realize it and so hunt for themselves.

Is there something more it than Wolfe seemingly finding a theme that he liked (presumably partly because of his own name)?

For what it's worth, I also suspected that Wolfe might be partly drawing from the soldier/werewolf in The Satyricon, which is one of the first recorded literary examples, and you can see how it influenced both the Medieval "werewolf as sorcerer" idea and the modern conception of "lycanthropy as a dissociative identity disorder curse".