From: "Mitchell A. Bailey" <MAB@lindau.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Navigator
Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1999 09:59:13 

Robert Borski wrote:
> 
...
> 1) How are the survivors of a crash, ...able to organize a funeral, complete
> with black wagons? Especially when it appears they will be subject to
> arrest very soon?
> 

Concurrence! Exactly what I was wondering when this
crew-of-crashed-spaceship theory for the original residents of the
Antechamber first got floated.

> 2) Why do the "burying people" ...wear black? While a custom in our times ...Severian tells us wearing black to a funeral slanders the
> deceased because of its association with his guild.
> 

Ummm, I think Severian actually meant that the wearing of _fuligin_, as
distinct from mere black, constituted the association with torturers. He
went to some trouble to explain to the little girl how the color of his
habit could be distiguished.

BTW, speaking of variations in burial customs, isn't a significant
component of the crashed-starship theory that its crew is predominately
of eastern Asian origin, Korean or Chinese, due to that name "Kim Lee
Soong" which crops up? 
If I'm not mistaken, the eastern asian cultures use white as a funereal
and mourning color much as westerners use black. I would expect that a
Korean crew, given the chance to organize a funeral, would dress
predominately in white. I think the Chinese do use black in funerals in
certain instances, but I'm not clear on the distinction - I think it
depends on the relationship to the deceased.


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