Borski and cacogens (Long)

Roy C. Lackey · 24 May 2006, 06:36 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 01:36:55 -0500
Subject: (urth) Borski and cacogens (Long)
Message-ID: <001801c67efc$776b0ac0$793ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

At the beginning of this thread, b sharp wrote:

>Borski thinks Ossipago is Father Inire in disguise, inside a semi-robotic
>suit.  Perhaps this is true.  Just before he meets F, B and O, Severian
sees
>a spaceship above Baldanders' castle with blobs of orange light going up
and
>down. We later learn the orange light teleports people up and down from the
>ship.  Wolfe very pointedly has Severian see two blobs of orange light
>appear just before he enters the castle. Two, not three.

And in a follow-up:

>This contradicts the "Ossipago is Inire" theory, which is fine with me.
But
>any thoughts on why Severian, before he enters Baldanders' castle, sees one
>orange blob teleport up to the spaceship, then only two ready to teleport
>down, just before he meets F, B and O for the (his) first time?

I don't see the point of this, but this is the text in question:

"The misty light of the moon, the younger sister's kiss upon the face of her
dying elder, shone on the upper surface of that huge disk. Beneath it, in
its thick shadow, gleamed sparks of orange light. They moved, gliding up or
down, though their movement was so slow that I had watched them for some
time before I was conscious of it. Eventually, one rose until it appeared to
be immediately under the disk and vanished, and just before we came to
shore, two more appeared in the same spot." (SWORD, chapter XXXII)

The "sparks of orange light", seen from a distance, were the crewmen, the
"mermen" mentioned in the quote someone gave the other day (chapter XXXV,
first paragraph), moving around on the hull. There were obviously more than
three of them. What difference does it make if one went up and two came
down? All three Hierodules were inside the castle when Severian entered. One
of the "mermen" made an appearance at a castle window while they were
talking. One showed himself, "wreathed in orange light", on the hull just
before B, F and O went back to the ship. They ascended by using a slender
line that was "glowing orange". The "mermen" didn't use the orange line to
get about on the hull, but they probably used it to reach the castle, 35
feet below the ship. I doubt if Ossipago, even without his human costume,
could have crawled around on the hull.

At any rate, if B, F and O glowed orange while going up to the ship,
Severian failed to note it. I don't see any reason to suppose a particular
connection of the three "sparks of orange light" in question to B, F and
O -- if that is what you are trying to do.

-Roy

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