Ship Citadel

b sharp · 06 May 2006, 04:16 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Sat, 06 May 2006 00:16:34 -0400
Subject: (urth) Ship Citadel
Message-ID: <BAY103-F3118AAA11089BF5680544D7AA0 at phx.gbl>

Well, interesting.  Roy's reference to Urth XXXV was illuminating actually 
in that an officer tells Severian he is being taken, "To the old port.  One 
of the hulks there has been fitted up to hold prisoners". So perhaps the 
Citadel is constructed of more than one old ship.  But spaceship it is, as 
evidence by these other passages:

Shadow III: Description of the Matachin Tower- "(for the examination room 
was the propulsive chamber of the original structure)".

Shadow XI: Description of Severian's new room after elevation-  "because I 
was the most junior of the journeymen, the least desirable in the tower, a 
portless cubbyhole".

Urth XXXVII: Description of the port in Severian's cell (Roche's future 
bedchamber)- "its broad, smooth flanges, of a shaped I had never considered, 
had clearly been intended to hold the void at bay"

I think there are one or two more I can't find scattered in the text.  I 
wonder if perhaps the many towers of the citadel were made from the former 
giant masts. Just speculation there.

-Bsharp

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