From: Michael Richman <mrichman@cybernex.net>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v005.n023
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 20:37:05 


[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]


>> And I don't think that Wolfe uses language in a sort of simple 
>> equivalence such as gammadion = screwdriver and nothing more; after all, 
>> he could have invented some science fictinal gobbledygook for futuristic 
>> tools like they do on Star Trek (induced phase decoupler or some such 
>> nonsense).
>

 see below 

>All priests carry them and have been taught to use them to fix Windows.
>They get fancier with rank---Quetzal's is jeweled. Incus fixes Hammerstone
>with one, and his non-priestly black mechanic pals doubtless wield them
>too, possibly illegally or at least heretically. 

Quetzal doesn't fix Hammerstone with a gammadion but with something called
an "optisynapter" IIRC.  The Quetzal was able to repair Maytera Marbles arm
while Silk was not.


Michael Richman
380 Homans Av
Closter, NJ  07624
mrichman@bc.cybernex.net