Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v001.n064

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 1997 07:50:01 +0000

[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

. 
>         Another question I have is that of, is Chenille a real color? It
is
> a type of material or fabric I know, but Chenille herself refers to it as
a
> color, the color that she died her hair, she also says that there are
> Chenille flowers, which I am ignorant of also. However, the word in
French
> means caterpillar, which kind of screws of the whole girl names=flowers.

xury:

My new OED that I am so proud of let me down, giving only the fabric
definition (though it did please me by going back for roots past the French
caterpillar to "canicula," a hairy little dog). Wyman's Garden Encyclopedia
comes partly to the rescue:

CHENILLE COPPERLEAF (Acalypha hispida): A house plant, native of the East
Indies...the red flowers are born in spikelike drooping racemes...sometimes
it is called the Red Hot Cattail...

I have actually seen these flowers in the tropics, both the drooping ones
and another upright rather contorted kind (echevera leucotrychia) that
Wyman's lists but does not elaborate on, and yes they are fuzzy and of a
brilliant "unnatural" red--scarlet leaning toward fuschia. Think of it as
one of those punk "cellophane" dye jobs.

-alga-

Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com

---

From: Kieran Mullen <kieran at phyast.nhn.ou.edu>
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 21:06:34 +0000

>From: "Alice Turner" <al at interport.net>
>
>Mate  is sorta weak as a clue.
>
>But the quick-and-dirty clues to Alexandria are (1) Holy Katharine (St.
>Catherine is the patron of Alexandria); (2) the library; (3) the cluster of
>towers in the old launching pad (Matachin, Bear, Witches etc.) which seem
>to stand in for the ancient Pharos. Admittedly, the third point is a bit
>far-fetched, but not so much when you put in context (I promise to do
>context soon---taxes are in the way).

   This doesn't persuade me.  Holy Katharine is not the patron of Nessus,
only of the torturers.  St. Catherine (of the St. Catherine's wheel fame)
was martyred (IIRC) on a burning wheel.  If anything, this is an allusion
to the fact that the towers are themselves rockets.  The library reference
is too broad: are ALL libraries in fiction automatically the Great Library
of Alexandria?

                    Kieran Mullen