reservoir tipped

Mark Millman · 22 Oct 1998, 13:39 · from urth-v0020.mbox · original

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From: "Mark Millman" <Mark_Millman at hmco.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) reservoir tipped
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 13:39:13
Message-ID: <urth-v0020-0095 at digest.urth.net>
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On 22 October 1998 at 4:55 pm GMT,
Dan Parmenter wrote:

> I always found it interesting that Wolfe
> used the canonical torturer/executioner
> image (bare-chested, hooded, some-
> times cloaked) but eschewed the cus-
> tomary axe.  Or am I mistaken?  Is the
> "canonical" torturer just as likely to be
> equiped with a sword as an axe?

In England (and in the Germanic countries generally,
to a lesser extent) the axe was favored; on the Con-
tinent (and especially in the Romance countries) the
sword was preferred.

The sword, of course, carries better symbolic freight
for Wolfe's purposes, even leaving aside the South
American (thus Spanish) cultural heritage of the
Commonwealth.

> Where did this image originate?

I leave this for others to answer.  (I think it may be an
idealization of the actual appearance of executioners,
but I'm far from sure).

> Dan, who is still actually trying to come
> up with a good "Whorl" name.  Currently
> toying with "Shellac" (made from the
> excretions of the Laccifer lacca, and thus,
> seemingly as valid as "Silk").

Mark Millman
(who would be using "Nacre" as a nom-de-Verticille
if he were posting to the Whorl, and so supports
Dan's "Shellac" without reservation)

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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