Urth Net
(no subject)
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Jeff Wilson: I'm judging this on the basis that Ouen has a cloisonne of his mother, apparently a self-portrait since the painting business comes down her side of the family and Dorcas does various little artisty things while she's with Severian. The obsessive boatman wouldn't have wanted to part with his last picture of her esp to a child who might lose it, so there must have been another for him to keep somewhere.
Hm..interesting. Self-portrait. Dorcas is artistic, as we know from her role in set design with Dr. Talos' troupe. Still, I think there might be an even better artist than her in the family.
With regard to the locket with Dorcas' likeness, we actually do know quite a bit about what happened to it. The Boatman is quite the opposite from obsessive about keeping material things as he tells Severian in describing the loft he currently sleeps in:
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There isn't a piece of cloisonne in it, or a garment, or so much as a nail from the old shop. I tried to keep a locket and Cas's combs but everything's gone.
When we hear from Ouen on the subject:
"My father had a locket with her likeness. Once when I was twenty or so I came to see him and found out he'd pledged it. I'd come into a bit of money.....and I went to the pawnbroker's and paid the pledge and took it. I still wear it, sieur."
There is a BotNS story about a famous artist who draws likenesses of the people he
cares about and who has trouble hanging on to material possessions. The artist is quite
a charismatic ladies man as well as being a trickster and a liar. Perhaps it was (monkey- armed) Fechin who drew that portrait.