From: Peter Westlake <peter@harlequin.co.uk>
Subject: (urth) Mind the Doors, Please
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 19:05:16 +0000

I've been reading my Lexicon Urthus Additions and Errata III,
which turned up in the post a couple of days ago - thank you
very much, mantis! - and noticed something about the footsteps
in the mine at Saltus. Severian is reminded of them by the
footsteps of the mastodon, Mamillian, and this biological
association makes mantis think the Deep One must be biological
too. He goes on to say that mention chess imagery: "that Mamillian
is a cross between an elephant and a tower means that it is a Rook,
which in some chess sets is represented as an elephant with a small
wooden tower on its back." So near, O mantis, and yet so far!
A Rook is also called a Castle. So, not elephant and tower, but ...
... Elephant and Castle. Is the London Underground sufficiently
suggestive of subterranean engines for you?

Spectacled Bear, who has accidentally almost convinced himself
that Wolfe intended this :-)


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