From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (urth) Inire's Machines?
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 98 17:54:00 GMT

Spectacled Bear,

Father Inire's machine?  Really!  I didn't know he had any.  So this
tower stomping around underground does not pre-date the Autarchy,
since Inire serves the Autarchs from Ymar to Severian (and
Valeria's regency, presumably).

The mine shaft was begun in (one year before) the era of the
Conciliator (or "week of the Conciliator") (V, ch. 34, last page).
The Autarchy began sometime after the era of the Conciliator.

Hmmm.

Well, ships are built within bottles, after all.

And Cyriaca's tale tells of bad machines digging down to the twisted
roots of trees and finding, essentially, Pandora's box of
techno-toys, so there you have it.  But her tale places these bad
machines at a time far distant, at the long decline of the First
Empire.  Which presumably comes before Typhon's attempt at a Second
Empire; and Typhon comes before Autarchy.  Long time, maybe even deep
time according to some.

=mantis=

(Would my wife be "mantisa" or "womantic"?  Do I have a choice?)

=m=

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