Brother Cook and Brother Porter: Robots or Crappy Torturers?

David Stockhoff · 04 Jul 2010, 12:07 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:07:28 -0400
Subject: (urth) Brother Cook and Brother
	Porter:	Robots	or	Crappy	Torturers?
In-Reply-To: <4C30788C.5010804 at io.com>
References: <4C2FBD71.2080603 at io.com>	<4C2FFB66.6030409 at verizon.net>	<4C302BCD.9080800 at io.com>	<4C30711B.4090802 at verizon.net>
	<4C30788C.5010804 at io.com>
Message-ID: <4C307980.1010003 at verizon.net>

Good catch. Perhaps being Cook is not actually a duty. Since the Porter 
is old, he may not actually do much work either.

But this means they could just as well be full brothers. The Porter 
simply directs whatever portage needs to be done.

Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 7/4/2010 6:31 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
>> They could also just be titles---whoever is the cook is Brother Cook.
>
> Brother Cook doesn't even do all the cooking, though. "Soon there is 
> scrubbing and kitchen work. Brother Cook performs such cooking as 
> might be interesting or pleasurable, and the apprentice is left to 
> pare vegetables, serve the journeymen, and carry an endless succession 
> of stacks of trays down the stairs to the oubliette."
>
> And Brother Porter is *old*. "But, oh, how much it cost me to walk 
> past the open tower door and looking out see the corpse door in the 
> curtain wall, and old Brother Porter lounging there."
>
> Looking back over Severian's elevation, I think it might be that they 
> declined the fuligin but asked to remain and serve the Order.
>

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