Vodalus & the Old Autarch

DAVID STOCKHOFF · 10 Aug 2010, 16:52 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (DAVID STOCKHOFF)
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:52:03 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Vodalus & the Old Autarch
In-Reply-To: <4C615B85.6090204 at io.com>
Message-ID: <764104.69060.qm at web84104.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Possibly. And yet autarchal profiles figure prominently in the story (as do counterfeits). They can't be quite as poor as the Romans'. I actually took that observation to mean that the true and counterfeit coins had the same origin (different materials?). Did the Autarch fund Vodalus with false coins?

I was thinking of when Sev meets Inire (cowled) looking for the Green Room in the House. Thecla would have been disoriented meeting him later, certainly.

--- On Tue, 8/10/10, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote:

From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Vodalus & the Old Autarch
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 10:00 AM

On 8/10/2010 6:47 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> Others, such as Jolenta and the doctor, don't seem to make the
> connection either---but then, they wouldn't. Thecla certainly would have.
> 
> It is pretty odd that a ruler with his face on a coin would go about
> unannounced, letting people think he was merely a eunuch. Especially
> when he is rumored to be a eunuch.

Severian sees that Vodalus' and Dr Talos' counterfeit coins are struck from the same die, implying that he's seen variations among other coins and that dies are not accurately reproducible, implying fairly crude minting technology. So the Autarchs' coinage may be distinguishable from one another, but might resemble the actual person about as much as Caesar's surviving coinage resembles his surviving statuary.

> Then again, Severian doesn't tell us that Thecla recognized Inire, either.

Inire's face was covered by the shaman's mask, and Thecla was probably the sort of aristocrat who took little notice of the lower classes and the filthy natives.

-- Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >
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