Two tombs

Roy C. Lackey · 03 Jul 2006, 23:51 · from 2006-July.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 18:51:19 -0500
Subject: (urth) Two tombs
Message-ID: <001201c69efb$97c9c300$ba3ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Last year there was some debate about whether or not the mausoleum where
Cilinia was buried was the same mausoleum where Severian played as a boy.
They are *not* the same, and I can prove it.

There were a total of five coffins in Sev's mausoleum, two open on the
floor and three intact on shelves. These latter three were too heavy for him
to even shift. (SHADOW, chap. II) Where Cilinia had been buried there were
"lots of coffins. They were supposed to be up on stone shelves, but most of
them were not, and a lot were empty." (RTTW, 391) "Lots" is, I think, more
than five, and "a lot" is certainly more than two. At any rate, no matter
how you parse it, the majority of the coffins in Sev's mausoleum were on
shelves. The majority of the coffins in Cilinia's mausoleum were on the
floor.

Plus, Cilinia's coffin was half the size of adult coffins.

-Roy

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