From: "John Gersten" <jgersten@slip.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Imps
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 11:36:47 

>When Severian as a very young boy runs his first errand to the Witches
>Tower, he tells us "I was ushered into the presence of an old woman who sat
>in the only chair I had yet seen there, staring through a glass tabletop at
>what appeared to be an artificial landscape inhabited by hairless, crippled
>animals."
>
>But what might these hairless, crippled animals be?

I always thought this was just a large microscope, which Sev would perforce
see as a thing of wonder.  After a quick glance, I could see someone with no
knowledge of bacteriology or cell biology interpreting this as an
"artificial landscape inhabited by hairless, crippled animals."


Of course, this "view-from-above of crippled animals" may well be how the
spacefaring characters in the book regard the denizens of Urth (or even how
Wolfe views them <grin>)....

John


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