I don't think anything is spoiled here, but I'll put the spoiler tag because this is meant for people who have read The Book of the New Sun.
Claim: Severian is the same person as the girl from Jean M. Auel's book The Clan of the Cave Bear.
Evidence:
Both stories start with a swim in a river.
The first thing that Severian remembers is putting pebbles on top of each other.
From The Shadow of the Torturer:
From my earliest memory I remember all. That first recollection is of piling pebbles...
From The Clan of the Cave Bear:
The girl played for a while, swimming back and forth, then let the current float her downstream. Where the river widened and bubbled over rocks, she stood up and waded to shore, then walked back to the beach and began sorting pebbles. She had just put a stone on top of a pile of especially pretty ones when the earth began to tremble.
The caveman girl's family is destroyed in an earthquake. Severian also does not have a family. He also experiences an earthquake.
At one point Severian's friends mention an expedition to "a lion pit" and this seems to have no relevance at all, and the meaning of it is never explained. It has huge relevance to Severian/girl because the lion pit is where she was injured by the lion in The Clan of the Cave Bear. If this is not the case, then please explain the meaning of the lion pit (chapter 10 in The Shadow).
The Bear Tower = The Clan of the Cave Bear
Severian has the memories of a caveman. Not educated much. But easily survives in the wilderness, SOMEHOW!
How does this make you feel? Do you have some evidence that would support or refute this idea?
TL;DR Severian is a character from The Clan of the Cave Bear.
Here I pause. If you wish to walk no farther with me, reader, I do not blame you. It is no easy road.
I am beginning to think stopping there might have been the better choice. All things considered.
r/shittygenewolfe
Maybe, but it is canon until you provide some evidence to the contrary.
You’re asking him to prove it’s not true?
OP is staying in character.
The word you are looking for is headcanon
OP is so close, and yet misses the mark. In truth, Severian was Barney Rubble in a past life, and the pebbles he plays with is in fact his daughter Pebbles. What's more, his former home in Bedrock is none other that the stone house upon which he later battles Apu Punchau. This is made all the more obvious when one realizes that Apu Punchau literally translates to Brave Stone Warrior, which is an almost perfect translation of Barnard Rubble (hardy warrior of broken rocks.)
Well it's a better theory than the one where Severian turns out to be a time displaced Jimmie Walker.
I can easily read the book and conclude that Severian is literally everybody.
It's funny because when I read it I started thinking holy shit am I actually Severian?
Andy Weir's The Egg started out as Severian fanfic.
Finnegans Wake is Severian dreaming for 6 hours and nothing else.
Just read the story. That's a good one.
Both books were published in literally the same month (May 1980). So it seems impossible that Wolfe could have had either consciously or subconsciously taken from the other book (or vice versa).
gasp
B-b-but... hh... How?
You win... I must admit defeat....
But I'll get you next time, LongtimeLurker916...
I'll get you next time...
Eventually, you will see the world through my eyes.
Wolfe was well known to be a time traveller, so this doesn't refute anything.
You know what? I can't rule it out
That's the spirit!
I mean, why not?
My theory (has nothing to do with Clan of the Cave Bear) is that Little Severian is also actual Severian. I think when the Little Severian who wandered with our standard Severian touched the golden ring on the statue, he wasn’t vaporized but transported back in time to where he was suddenly drowning in the river, his first memory.
But alas, that doesn’t explain how he would know his childhood companions and the world (entire reality in his young mind) of the Torturer’s Guild.
I now understand that drowning in the river means "piling pebbles" in some future language.
Your theory is perfect!
I also think that Little Severian is Severian. I think all the characters in the book are Severian.
Definitely a confused cave-girl
It is absurd how a cityboy somehow knows so much about tracking, fire starting, navigation. And absolutely nothing about hunting, fishing or gathering. But still doesn't die when wandering alone in places so inhospitable that no one else lives in at all. Without even a shirt.
I don't think so. Wolfe is very interested in the gender of his characters, it seems unlikely he would make a female character encoded as a male. Female characters seem to fill MUCH different roles in his story compared to even what would be their male counterparts, even to the point of the Auturch playing the role of a pimp, or perhaps a panderer when Severian and his guild-mates go to a whore-house.
Severian....
I wonder how much of that is based on his experiences in Korea? Because on one level the text seems like his catholic Confessions with a mask or two on top of the face.
I haven't read The Clan of the Cave Bear, but I think the idea of Severian having been born Severa is worth thinking about. The Masters of the Guild of Torturers would have to be in on it. What would that mean for Severian/Severa's sibling, Severa/Severian? Are they a trans woman living with the Witches, or something else?
Trans woman living with the witches? When young Severian goes to the Witches' Tower and the stooped huchback woman answers the door, IMHO that was one of Inire's khaibits. Wheels within wheels...