On the allocation of blankets

Scott Cooper · 02 Jun 2010, 23:05 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: sec6 at adelphia.net (Scott Cooper)
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 19:05:24 -0400
Subject: (urth) On the allocation of blankets
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References: <AANLkTilJtVrm6S553iKOKgZq1xy2xjLl9IuVEDzIGk4v at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <F8D98D85-B050-4D38-A12D-0D49F008C83E at adelphia.net>

Right:  just because it's Wolfe doesn't mean it has to be convoluted.   
I strongly agree with that.

I hadn't thought of your interpretation, and it fits the text well.   
What's more, it explains why the first word out of her mouth was "I,"  
and relates it to the foregoing passage where Pega is talking to Odilo  
in a low voice.  On the other hand, asking for a *second* blanket  
would have been extraordinarily selfish.  Do we really have any  
indication she's -- not just that selfish, but that indifferent to  
what people think of her selfishness?  She'd be like Jolenta, in that  
case.

If we're going with a "not convoluted" explanation, then I'd go with  
my #3, i.e. what she's about to say is "You can share MY blanket any  
time, big boy" or words to that effect.

My reason for thinking there might be a "convoluted" interpretation  
was the following principle of Lupine exegesis:  where there's a  
mystery, there's a clue.  I think we can agree there's some mystery  
about Thais. The typical Wolfe clue is (I assert) a minor detail  
which, if you even notice it makes you ask "why did he even include  
that?"  The whole Odilo/Pega/Thais episode only occupies a few pages,  
and, looking within it for such a detail, I found the elbow-in-the- 
ribs episode.  That's why I thought it a question worth asking.

Also, incidentally:
Are you sure old fashioned gallantry would have prevented Odilo from  
accepting the blanket after Thais asked for it?  What he's displayed  
towards her up to that point isn't gallantry -- it's irritation.  I  
think a more likely explanation why he wouldn't accept the blanket if  
she asked for it is that he suspects she's of exultant caste (but  
suspects, too, that she's only pretending to be.)  I think his  
irritation's provoked by that ambiguity:  it's just the sort of thing  
that would get on his nerves.

On 6/2/10, at 2:14 PM, Tony Ellis wrote:

> I really don't think it's that convoluted. Everyone except Thais can
> see that it is only Odilo's old-fashioned gallantry that is making him
> refuse the blanket he badly needs. Severian's "why don't you use it
> until I'm ready for it?" is transparently a way of getting him to take
> it without losing face.
>
> Thais doesn't say anything until Severian has said this, so most
> likely she was about to say "I could do with another blanket, if it's
> going spare."
>
> Odilo would never have accepted the blanket after that, so the
> compassionate Pega, who has already taken a shine to him, quickly
> shuts Thais up.
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