# antechamber antics *The Urth list — 4 messages, 3 voices, 07 Jul 1999* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Michael Andre-Driussi *07 Jul 1999, 10:58* On the lighter side (not that things have been very heavy): Item: in describing the carved mountains of Urth, Severian mentions that they wear diadems, tiaras, and miters. (In the Lexicon I used the last item as an excuse to muse upon the religious angle of the office of autarch. Probably a mistake--it might only mean that some autarchs were bishops first.) Item: immediately outside the antechamber, the servers of pastries and coffee wear starched miters (at one level this is a signal that Severian cannot recognize artifacts that we can--in this case, the chef's hat). Conclusion: among those frosty mountain faces, the fat and smiling face of Autarch (Chef) Boy-ar-dee . . . (Imagine the last instructions: "Here, mix my brains with these spaghetti-os--a tasty dish, my crowning achievement.") On the murky side (as if--never mind!): Remember how Uncle Gene says in CASTLE OF THE OTTER (eaten by CASTLE OF DAYS) that the enamel of the pictures in the religious book link to the enamel work sold by Dorcas and done by her nameless husband? And how Uncle Gene would let us work out the rest? Well then, add to the "enamel" file the fact that the symbols on the panel in the presence chamber are enamel. =mantis= --- ### Mark Millman *07 Jul 1999, 14:17 · follows Michael Andre-Driussi* > On Wednesday 7 July 1999, mantis wrote: > On the murky side (as if--never mind!): > > Remember how Uncle Gene says in > CASTLE OF THE OTTER (eaten by > CASTLE OF DAYS) that the enamel > of the pictures in the religious book > link to the enamel work sold by > Dorcas and done by her nameless > husband? And how Uncle Gene > would let us work out the rest? > > Well then, add to the "enamel" file the > fact that the symbols on the panel in > the presence chamber are enamel. O prophetic cousin bug, are you trying to tell us that "Charon" is Fechin? Mark Millman --- ### Roy C. Lackey *08 Jul 1999, 06:52 · follows Mark Millman* >> mantis wrote: >> On the murky side (as if--never mind!): Remember how Uncle Gene says in CASTLE OF THE OTTER (eaten by CASTLE OF DAYS) that the enamel of the pictures in the religious book link to the enamel work sold by Dorcas and done by her nameless husband? And how Uncle Gene would let us work out the rest?<< ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you sure about that source? I don't find it in OTTER, but I do find what you posted Feb. 27, 1997 to the whorl list: >> Gene Wolfe's lure (plea?) for Oracular Reading (that is, a reading >> more mantic than mantic): "It seems to me that we can reasonably make two assumptions about these four books. The first is that they are books Thecla might reasonably ask to borrow, and the second is that they all must have something to do with Severian. Note, for example, that the pictures in the book of devotions are enameled and that Severian will soon encounter Dorcas; Dorcas comes from a family once engaged in the manufacture of cloisonne, and she once lived in a shop where it was sold. Cloisonne is a colored decoration of enamels. In the rest of this essay, however, I will concentrate on the first assumption, not wishing to deprive you of the legitimate pleasure of deducting the connections" (Gene Wolfe, PLAN[E]T ENGINEERING, NESFA Press, p. 9). -------------------=mantis= << --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, the cloisonne-work was not made by Dorcas's husband. He just lugged it to the shop and put it on the shelves. Her father and brother made it. (I, XXII) Roy --- ### Mark Millman *08 Jul 1999, 08:14 · follows Roy C. Lackey* > On Thursday 8 July 1999 at 11:52 am GMT, > Roy C. Lackey wrote: > mantis wrote: >> On the murky side (as if--never mind!): >> >> Remember how Uncle Gene says in CASTLE >> OF THE OTTER (eaten by CASTLE OF DAYS) >> that the enamel of the pictures in the religious >> book link to the enamel work sold by Dorcas >> and done by her nameless husband? And how >> Uncle Gene would let us work out the rest? > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Are you sure about that source? I don't find it in > OTTER, but I do find what you posted Feb. 27, 1997 > to the whorl list: >> Gene Wolfe's lure (plea?) for Oracular Reading >> (that is, a reading more mantic than mantic): >> >> "It seems to me that we can reasonably make two >> assumptions about these four books. The first is >> that they are books Thecla might reasonably ask >> to borrow, and the second is that they all must have >> something to do with Severian. Note, for example, >> that the pictures in the book of devotions are >> enameled and that Severian will soon encounter >> Dorcas; Dorcas comes from a family once en- >> gaged in the manufacture of cloisonne, and she >> once lived in a shop where it was sold. Cloisonne >> is a colored decoration of enamels. In the rest of >> this essay, however, I will concentrate on the first >> assumption, not wishing to deprive you of the >> legitimate pleasure of deducting the connections" >> (Gene Wolfe, PLAN[E]T ENGINEERING, NESFA >> Press, p. 9). >> >> -------------------=mantis= > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Also, the cloisonne-work was not made by Dor- > cas's husband. He just lugged it to the shop and > put it on the shelves. Her father and brother made > it. (I, XXII) > > Roy Ehrm, right. Thank you, Roy. Please revise my last to read, " . . . Fechin's brother- or son-in-law?" Hmm. Not nearly as good this way, I think. But at least it does preserve Fechin's complete lack of personal appearance in the text. Mark Millman ---