(urth) Questions about BNS

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:26:21 +1100 Eric Ortlund 
<eortlund at briercrest.ca> wrote:
>
>1) When Severian enters the shop of Agilus and Agia, Agilus is 
>wearing a
>mask that makes him look like a corpse.  No detail in Wolfe is
>inconsequential: so why is that there?  Foreshadowing of Agilus' 
>fate?  

Also, Agilus has some kind of permanent mask attachment points on 
his neck. Sev can still see them when Agilus removes the mask. 
What's with that?

>2) When Severian and Agia are in the Jungle Garden, the apparently
>travel in time and space (the story about Father Inire's mirrors
>apparently prepares the reader for this) to a missionary couple in 

>the
>jungle.  Can someone please explain to me what on earth the native 

>is
>talking about on pg. 131?  The woman in the couple reads from
>Deuteronomy 34 - about Moses looking into the promised land but 
>not
>being able to enter it - and then the native tells a story about a 

>fish
>who apparently is a woman.  I'm totally at a loss here; what is 
>the
>connection?  What is the naked man talking about?  How does this
>contribute to the story?  

On the fish part: Just after the jungle hut scene (I think) Sev 
tells Agia the story of Inire and Thecla's little friend, the one 
in which the mirror-fish appears. I'm pretty sure this is the same 
fish, and the woman is the "reflection" of Thecla's friend. 

>3) What about the vision Dorcas and Severian see when they're 
>leaving
>Nessus of the huge palace (pg 181)?  What is it of?  I vaguely 
>remember
>that the conversation which Severian has with the woman who gives 
>him
>tea at the fair in Saltus might hint that it is somehow identified 

>with
>the tent of the Pelerines.  Is that on the right track?

I thought it was pretty clear that this was indeed the Pelerine's 
temple rising up like a hot air balloon.

>4) At the end of Shadow of the Torturer, there's a disturbance at 
>the
>huge gate of Nessus; we only learn in Severian's dream in the next 

>book
>about the five soldiers turning people aside.  Severian seems so
>circumspect in describing this that I'm suspicious he knows 
>something
>which he isn't telling us.  Is this incident in the book 
>significant?
>Or is it just that Severian doesn't know why the soldiers are 
>there?

Over the years, this has puzzled many. I haven't yet heard an 
entirely satisfactory solution & don't have one myself.

>5) One more and I'll stop - when Severian nearly drowns in the 
>Gyoll
>near the beginning of Shadow, he sees a woman's face; later, 
>during his
>dream while he's sleeping next to Baldanders, the brides of Abia 
>hint
>that they came to see him at the Gyoll - so that's who he sees.  
>Two
>questions: who is the woman crying that he hears - Thecla?  Also, 
>when
>his friends pull him out, he says that he saw the dead Malrubius - 

>and a
>boatman asks if Malrubius is a woman.  I know this is really 
>small, but,
>like I said, no detail is insignificant; why would the boatman say 

>this?
>Is there anything here?

My guess is that the crying woman was his mother (near-death has 
dredged up a very early memory, or something like that). The 
boatman knows that water-women come up the river, and he wonders if 
"Malrubius" was one of these. (Actually, I can't remember exactly 
where we get told that water-women coming up the river is 
relatively common - but I believe at the end of CoA there's enough 
to make this clear, and SilkHorn says somethign like this in RTTW.)