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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1682 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 6, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm going through al-Ghazali's Arrangement of the Litanies. So far it is surprisingly interesting, given that I thought the practical aspects of worship would be boring for a non-Muslim. Backlog has been stuck for a while.

Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe. I originally bounced off Book of the New Sun several years ago, stopping at the jarring disconnect that happens between Shadows and Claw. But i finally got around to reading it again, this time I have made it to Sword.

These books remind me of a quote from Les Grossman’s Magicians where Dean Fog remarks “I’m powerful enough to discern that I am stuck in a time loop but not powerful enough to do anything about it”

It’s the same here. I’m a smart, and discerning enough reader of complex philosophical fiction to be able to discern some of the layers going on, but also to understand that I am missing a large amount of the subtextual narrative that’s actually going on, and it is an extremely irritating feeling. I feel like I need a PhD in literature to make sense of this book on a first read. I know that most fans reread this series but I have never had to reread anything. Add to the fact that I can’t just casually read this and it compounds my annoyance.

Don’t get me wrong i love the series. That part of my mind that loves complicated abstractions and theorizing about hidden connections just eats it up. However i just sigh every time some other piece of literature gets brought in the book because now i need to pay super close attention lest i miss that the corn maidens are actually a mythologized parable for how to harvest energy from a black hole.

Severian is a clueless guy walking an Earth encrusted with the stories and dust of a billion years of human civilization. He's got no idea what's going on under the surface, and neither do you.

Yes, but is the novel written by Severian as the events are happening in his clueless state? The narrator makes many choices about what and how to relate.

The novel is written by Severian as a memoir, but he never figures out all the answers before he writes the memoir.

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