From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis@sirius.com>
Subject: (urth) antechamber antics
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 10:58:20 

On the lighter side (not that things have been very heavy):

Item: in describing the carved mountains of Urth, Severian mentions that
they wear diadems, tiaras, and miters.  (In the Lexicon I used the last
item as an excuse to muse upon the religious angle of the office of
autarch.  Probably a mistake--it might only mean that some autarchs were
bishops first.)

Item: immediately outside the antechamber, the servers of pastries and
coffee wear starched miters (at one level this is a signal that Severian
cannot recognize artifacts that we can--in this case, the chef's hat).

Conclusion: among those frosty mountain faces, the fat and smiling face of
Autarch (Chef) Boy-ar-dee . . .

(Imagine the last instructions: "Here, mix my brains with these
spaghetti-os--a tasty dish, my crowning achievement.")


On the murky side (as if--never mind!):

Remember how Uncle Gene says in CASTLE OF THE OTTER (eaten by CASTLE OF
DAYS) that the enamel of the pictures in the religious book link to the
enamel work sold by Dorcas and done by her nameless husband?  And how Uncle
Gene would let us work out the rest?

Well then, add to the "enamel" file the fact that the symbols on the panel
in the presence chamber are enamel.

=mantis=



*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/