Wow!
I feel boorish saying it, but the scarf in Mattak's drawer (I'm sure that is Mattak's drawer) is not necessarily peach-colored; the perfume reminds Silk of a peach-colored handkerchief of Blood's.
I always thought that scarf would lead to something, but I thought it was just another clue to Hy's perfidy, that she slept with both Oosik and Mattak. But a historical clue....
But how could it be? The antechamber scene takes place centuries after Typhon dispatched the Whorl. Doesn't it?
(alga, excited, gets up to join the dance, but trips over own cilia)
Reply: Item #4247449 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET#
alga,
Oh, you're right that the scarf on the Whorl isn't given a color. The peach-color is by association with Blood's handkerchief. The Whorl scarf scent isn't described either; the handkerchief probably gets more description.
The Urth scarf is peach colored and scented with an offworldly fragrence. It is also the bait of a trap; Severian picks it up and the nameless little girl (her name is probably something like a starship crew job title) warns him to put it down or else the whips will come back to get it. This serves as a partial trigger to his Thecla memories.
It is interesting to see the recurring use of such a distinctive
prop. (I'd be even more happy to find something about those musical instruments in the shop window--a puzzler!) Lately as I drift around with all these symbols (not cymbals), I wonder about little things like peacocks: they do have a mythical charge, associated with Hera (by way of Argos) I believe . . . yes, it is that Zeus-Io-Hera triangle. So anyway, I start wondering how Orchid, who uses peacock feathers as writing quills, might be like Hera; then I suppose that the man outside Ermine's with the peacock feather in his hat is somehow a spy for Orchid (or Hera, or Echidna?).
Then I drift from book to book and notice that in TBOTNS it is Agia who is associated with peacocks with her "pavonine" brochade dress. Which is interesting--Agia as an avenging Hera, Dorcas as Io (not to mention the Soldier series), and Severian as Zeus the amorous. I've often wondered about the animal fable layer to TBOTNS, especially when some characters have clear animal names: Dorcas means gazelle, Hildegrin is called the Badger, Talos has the face of a stuffed fox, and so on. So I watch for other animal aspects to show up.
But anyway, all this is back burner stuff.
=mantis=
Urth Net