Subject: (urth) Inire's Machines?

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 17:54:00 +0000

Spectacled Bear,

Father Inire's machine?  Really!  I didn't know he had any.  So this
tower stomping around underground does not pre-date the Autarchy,
since Inire serves the Autarchs from Ymar to Severian (and
Valeria's regency, presumably).

The mine shaft was begun in (one year before) the era of the
Conciliator (or "week of the Conciliator") (V, ch. 34, last page).
The Autarchy began sometime after the era of the Conciliator.

Hmmm.

Well, ships are built within bottles, after all.

And Cyriaca's tale tells of bad machines digging down to the twisted
roots of trees and finding, essentially, Pandora's box of
techno-toys, so there you have it.  But her tale places these bad
machines at a time far distant, at the long decline of the First
Empire.  Which presumably comes before Typhon's attempt at a Second
Empire; and Typhon comes before Autarchy.  Long time, maybe even deep
time according to some.

=mantis=

(Would my wife be "mantisa" or "womantic"?  Do I have a choice?)

=m=

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 23:04:46 +0000

At 17:54 1998/06/12 GMT, you wrote:
>Spectacled Bear,
>
>Father Inire's machine?  Really!  I didn't know he had any.

His teleporting mirrors strike me as high-tech in the extreme.
Am I missing something fundamental here?

>So this

The forged letter says that the treasure belongs to the Autarch
and is guarded by "certain servitors of Father Inire's" (Claw, ch 5).
The treasure exists, one or more sets of guards exist, and the
man-apes are commanded by the Autarch (Claw, ch 6). So that part
of the letter is born out, and Father Inire is responsible for
at least the man-apes. Given that, isn't it reasonable for him
to be responsible for a greater guard, to be invoked when the apes
aren't coping?

Having said that, I'm quite happy for the tower to have been there
for ages and been awakened by the Claw instead. Or combine the two
theories and have it found down there, refurbished and pressed into
service. (I quite like that idea, come to think of it.)

>Well, ships are built within bottles, after all.

They are, but it seems like hard work. Especially if you have
a set of teleporting mirrors. Or maybe it was there all the time
as you suggest, the miners found it, and that's why this particular
mine was used as a treasure-house in the first place.

SBear.

P.S. teleporting mirrors, ships in bottles - you are Hethor, and
I claim my five pounds!