House Absolute

Jeff Wilson · 01 Dec 2008, 15:45 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:45:34 -0600
Subject: (urth) House Absolute
In-Reply-To: <63FB9AC7E0AEC7459DBCC99DC44247CA01F6AFDA at BOSIDEXDB.Bankofscotland.ie>
References: <63FB9AC7E0AEC7459DBCC99DC44247CA01F6AFDA at BOSIDEXDB.Bankofscotland.ie>
Message-ID: <4934069E.1060504 at io.com>

O'Donnell, Tim (BOSI) wrote:
> All valid points and the assertion that the House Absolute is Mt 
> Cheyenne is cheerfully withdrawn!
> As was discussed here recently it is not one of those plot points that 
> is vital to book.
> However, I will still cling to the possibility that it is an underground 
> nuclear base; there is a section where
> Severian notes strange hexadecimal shapes (someone on this list 
> speculated that these were the biohazard symbol).
> That would certainly fit with this theory.

During the chilliads between our age of Myth and Severian's time, most 
extant buildings and underground structures will have served any number 
of purposes. Many underground locations appearing in the book show signs 
of defensive infrastructure ("hypogeum apotropaic" can be read as 
"underground bunker"), and underground bunkers have been useful since 
the advent of rifled artillery and mandatory since the dawn of bomber 
aircraft.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

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