antechamber antics

Mark Millman · 08 Jul 1999, 08:14 · from urth-v0027.mbox · original

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From: "Mark Millman" <Mark_Millman at hmco.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re:antechamber antics
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 08:14:33
Message-ID: <urth-v0027-0131 at digest.urth.net>
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On Thursday 8 July 1999 at 11:52 am GMT,
Roy C. Lackey wrote:

> mantis wrote:
>
>> On the murky side (as if--never mind!):
>>
>> Remember how Uncle Gene says in CASTLE
>> OF THE OTTER (eaten by CASTLE OF DAYS)
>> that the enamel of the pictures in the religious
>> book link to the enamel work sold by Dorcas
>> and done by her nameless husband?  And how
>> Uncle Gene would let us work out the rest?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---
>
>     Are you sure about that source? I don't find it in
> OTTER, but I do find what you posted Feb. 27, 1997
> to the whorl list:
>
>> Gene Wolfe's lure (plea?) for Oracular Reading
>> (that is, a reading more mantic than mantic):
>>
>> "It seems to me that we can reasonably make two
>> assumptions about these four books.  The first is
>> that they are books Thecla might reasonably ask
>> to borrow, and the second is that they all must have
>> something to do with Severian.  Note, for example,
>> that the pictures in the book of devotions are
>> enameled and that Severian will soon encounter
>> Dorcas; Dorcas comes from a family once en-
>> gaged in the manufacture of cloisonne, and she
>> once lived in a shop where it was sold.  Cloisonne
>> is a colored decoration of enamels.  In the rest of
>> this essay, however, I will concentrate on the first
>> assumption, not wishing to deprive you of the
>> legitimate pleasure of deducting the connections"
>> (Gene Wolfe, PLAN[E]T ENGINEERING, NESFA
>> Press, p. 9).
>>
>> -------------------=3Dmantis=3D
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--
>
>     Also, the cloisonne-work was not made by Dor-
> cas's husband. He just lugged it to the shop and
> put it on the shelves. Her father and brother made
> it. (I, XXII)
>
> Roy

Ehrm, right.  Thank you, Roy.  Please revise my
last to read, " . . . Fechin's brother- or son-in-law?"

Hmm.  Not nearly as good this way, I think.  But
at least it does preserve Fechin's complete lack
of personal appearance in the text.

Mark Millman



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