Mint, Marble and Rose are here! Now we are approaching to completing the whole main cast of the Long Sun, i think we miss Horn and Nettle, Dr Crane, Remora and Quetzal, Willet, Hammerstone and Incus, the Ayutamento and then the Triunvingantis.

while i continue my work with the whole Book of the Longs Sun and Short Sun illustration i want to put here one of my previous work, it has almosy a year, it wanted to be a stilyzed version of Severian as the Autharch, something like Gendry Tartakovsky or Bruce Timm, which i like immensly and sometime i draw in this second style of mine like in this case. Now the question​​While i was reading the Long Sun i was certain of some istance in which Severian was involved, like the voices of the ousider, and also when Silk was dying and was saved, now some one can dismiss this with someother explanation, like it could be a Neighbor aboard the Whorl that saved Silk, or that the voices were geneticaly implanted, and would be a good explenation given the information of the Short Sun, but it dosen't sit right for me because also in the Short whe know that Silk/Horn enconter a couple of time a "Physical Form" of the Outsider, or something like that, near the altar of the Unkown God for example. But it's just a Theory, a Gene Wolf Theory! now the question. For you there are some istance of Severian being in Long and Short Sun? And if yes, how? (Obiusly without talking about the encounter with the astral travel, i don't talk about that Severian)​​

In the 1984 interview with Chris Merrick ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMsq9noxBOg&t=3316s ) Wolfe said he was "supposed to be working on a libretto" for an opera by composer/SF author Somtow Sucharitkul. This opera was based on The Death of Doctor Island and was to be called Doctor Island's Death. (This is per Springfield Independent Dec. 27, 1984. https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=SFI19841227.1.10&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------- )

In the 1985 MiniCon program book lists this opera as "In Progress"

In progress : Doctor Island's Death, an opera with text by Gene Wolfe; and the updated version of Star Maker. https://fanac.org/conpubs/Minicon/Minicon%2018/Program%20Book.pdf

Alas, Somtow didn't produce any operas in the 1980s, presumably due to the composition block that the news article says led him to pivot to writing science fiction (published as SP Somtow). So, the music for this libretto was never composed.

Gene Wolfe however said he never suffered from writer's block as a review of his publication timeline confirms.

This implies that somewhere out there is an uncollected libretto by Gene Wolfe. Could this be in the papers donated to Northern Illinois University? Or was this libretto published and it escaped my notice?

EDIT: Somtow wrote in praise of Sword of the Lictor in Dec 1981 'Fantasy Newsletter'. www.enotes.com/topics/gene-rodman-wolfe/criticism/somtow-sucharitkul

I have been working on Land Across for a long time, and finally have some traction. I was looking at the names -Eion Demarates (the will of the people to live forever, but also "to Demeter"), Demetrios "Butch" Bobokis (also "To Demeter", but Bobok is from a Dosteovsky short where the dead speak underground) and his comrade Aegis (protection, but also associated with the head of the gorgon ...).Everything is a kind of prison in the Land Across, and the girl with the red pen shows up in chapter 10 with someone entranced looking at her, before Grafton goes to the prison to meet Rosalee in Chapter 11 and also meets the archbishop, who gives him the hand. The hand tries to kill Naala and disappears, and doesn't show up again until the lady with the red pen shows up. Grafton helps her, and at the end of that scene the hand appears in his pocket.

While I also think that the Slavic God Veles, a cognate of both Hades and Pan, is involved (he is a god of cattle (ox on the map), music, poetry, water, the underworld, and turns into a serpent, dragon, or wolf), there is definitely something we can conclude about the lady with the red pen Grafton winds up with on the way out. I think she is his editor ("editors are hell") and as he says whatever he reads in his notes are exactly like he remembers it - she changed the areas she showed up in, which happened to involve the weird prison death of Yelena, who first says Ferenc Narkatsos (whose last name implies asleep) was innocent and a good man and who later winds up somehow being part of the Unholy Way, though it was assumed someone came in looking for Rosalee, whom Yelena resembled ... a real mess logically ... were they there for Rosalee or Yelena?

So in the final chapter Grafton calls her My Lady four times ... The Lady is the title of Persephone, Demeter's daughter, Despoina, which is related to the word despot. She can make ghosts appear and disappear, and caused the head of the gorgon to be thrown at Odysseus (see the head of Butch Bobokis and his companion Aegis, whose name is involved with ... the head of the gorgon). She has escaped with Grafton, but will return. They are going to Argentina and Chile (nations with despotic rulers and then struggles with communist or other governments) and then Sicily (where Demeter descended into the underworld to find Persephone) and Corsica (so many interesting myths, including those of the Mazzeri, who can foretell death, and the Devil in Lake Creno, an entrance to the underworld. The devil created the lake and hid in the waters, but an exorcism was performed and he vanished. See the lake with Vlad's summer palace in Land Across ...)
In any case, these names like Rathaus (a place where people vote) seem tied to government, and Wolfe has tied together mythical figures like Demeter and Persephone into the tale as well. Grafton leaves with the Queen of the Underworld, who must return someday (thus all the prisons) since she ate the pomegranate seeds there (thus all the cafes they eat at). She is Persephone, Despoina, The Lady, and edits his documents and makes the ghost appear and disappear as well as seems to be responsible for the head of Bobokis being thrown in the room, as the hand wants to kill or terrorize Naala.