From: "Robert Borski" <rborski@coredcs.com>
Subject: (urth) Fechin
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 14:37:45 

Is anybody beside me disturbed by how often Fechin's name is mentioned in
the Book of the New Sun? He seems to be extraordinarily well known for an
artist, given the nature of the Commonwealth and its citizenry, in an age
where there seems to be little in the way of  media dissemination. Yes,
it's expected the upper classes might be familiar with his work, but he
seems almost to have cult status. I also find it odd that two of the
characters we meet--Rudeskind, who claims Fechin sketched him as a youth;
and old Becan's father, high in the faraway mountains, who claims to have
been a childhood friend--both assert personal knowledge of him.  

On the other hand, what I find interesting is how many people are soon
claiming they know Severian once he's become Autarch. Rudeskind, oddly
enough of all people, is the first to point this out, observing, in a long,
long series of examples,  "Been a while now since I met a woman didn't kiss
you and sew up a hole in your pants...You're every boy that's ever been
here, and I've heard stories put on you that belong to men that was old
when I was just a boy, and I've heard about things I did myself, seventy
years ago."

Severian also lists "artisan" when he talks about the commonality of most
of the previous autarchs.

Just a thought, but is it possible Fechin was an autarch who was once a
painter?

Robert Borski




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