Particolored Brocade

Son of Witz · 19 Dec 2008, 18:07 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org (Son of Witz)
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:07:07 +0000
Subject: (urth) Particolored Brocade
Message-ID: <W84112757218641229710027@webmail21>

(Here's one for the Wolfe Inspired Music, Particolored Brocade to the tune of Rasberry Beret)

I just realized that the multicolored lining in Don Maitz's Shadow cover isn't as completely off the mark as I thought it was.  While it's true that the Guild cloaks are never described as having a colored lining (Malrubius at one point has a fur lined cloak) there is a very important cloak that does.

In Urth, Chapter XXV
Severian dresses from the closet in his stateroom on his return trip from Yesod.
""""""""""""""""""
I selected a pair of loose, dark trousers bound at the waist with a russet sash, a tunic with an open neck and large pockets, and a cloak of the true fuligin of that guild of which I am still officially a master, lined with particolored brocade.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Particolored meaning Two or More colors.

later in XXXIII:
"""""""""""""
although this cloak (...) was fuligin purely by chance,
"""""""""""""""""""
One wonders if it is chance, or more Hierodoings, since they know WHEN they are sending him back to.

This is the Cloak he's wearing when he is Conciliator in the Age of the Monarch.  He has it on while he is performing his miracles. He is known as the Conciliator by the time he is arrested and taken to the jailers.  On the speedboat, his cloak and shirt are stolen.
"The man who took them will cut them up and sell the pieces, I imagine. He should make something from them. Wear this---I've got another one in my cabin."
The Cape the Jr. Officer gives him in place is what he has on during the Flood, though Wolfe writes "cloak" not "cape" there.

Why is any of this relevant?

I was toying with Conciliator iconography last night, trying to figure out how he would be portrayed. This was a big mystery for me on the first read.  It dawned on me that he's wearing this Fuligin cloak with the particolored brocade most of the time he's doing the acts that make people think of him as Conciliator, so this would undoubtedly show up in the iconography of his followers. One of whom must be Ymar, though he wouldn't have seen the Fuligin cloak.  It would seem that Ymar, in creating the Autarchy, infused his state with Conciliator/NewSun symbols (Phoenix Throne) and had the Jailers turned into The Guild, and honored them with the Fuligin cloaks of the Conciliator, though they apparently lack the lining. When the guard of the jailers is described, he has the carnificial sword, but no cloak is mentioned.  That Ymar would give this honor to the Guild is not that surprising because it's where his own roots are.

There is also, of course, the beautiful metaphor of death and resurrection right there in that cloak alone, Fuligin out, Multicolored within.  That's one thing I really like about Maitz's painting.

Of course, Maitz's painting was done before Urth was written, so perhaps Wolfe liked it and wrote it in.

I love how this detail adds texture to the time loop situation of Severian becoming the myth that inspired him.  This would be a crucial aspect of the Conciliator iconography, because, lacking that, what other symbols mark him as different.  With Christ, he might always look a bit different, but you've usually got a cross or a halo to identify him.  While, I suspect Conciliator icons would potentially have halos, (black halos) this Fuligin cloak would identify him distinctly, while the artist's rendering of his face would vary as much as any Christ picture does.

Cripes, only Wolfe would take something that ripe and make it practically unnoticeable. 

neat.

~witz

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