From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey@stic.net>
Subject: (urth) Re:antechamber antics
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 06:52:14 

mantis wrote:

>>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?<<

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Are you sure about that source? I don't find it in OTTER, but I do find
what you posted Feb. 27, 1997 to the whorl list:

>>Gene Wolfe's lure (plea?) for Oracular Reading (that is, a reading
more mantic than mantic):

"It seems to me that we can reasonably make two assumptions about
these four books.  The first is that they are books Thecla might
reasonably ask to borrow, and the second is that they all must have
something to do with Severian.  Note, for example, that the pictures
in the book of devotions are enameled and that Severian will soon
encounter Dorcas; Dorcas comes from a family once engaged in the
manufacture of cloisonne, and she once lived in a shop where it was
sold.  Cloisonne is a colored decoration of enamels.  In the rest of
this essay, however, I will concentrate on the first assumption, not
wishing to deprive you of the legitimate pleasure of deducting the
connections" (Gene Wolfe, PLAN[E]T ENGINEERING, NESFA Press, p. 9).

-------------------=mantis= <<

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Also, the cloisonne-work was not made by Dorcas's husband. He just
lugged it to the shop and put it on the shelves. Her father and brother made
it. (I, XXII)

Roy




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