(urth) Shadow, Chapter X

[Allan Anderson]

Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> Matt Teel wrote:
>
>   
>>> I've checked the archives, but don't see that this has been discussed:
>>>       
> what do you all make of the enigmatic reference at the beginning of Shadow
> Chapter X (The Last Year), where Severian and Roche are leaving the House
> Azure and the white-haired man pulls out something that Severian assumes at
> first to be an icon, but then discovers is a vial shaped like a phallus?
>
> Possible foreshadowing of his becoming Autarch? I don't know. Even if it is
> foreshadowing, it should make sense within the scene itself, but I can't
> quite figure it out.
>
> Anyone want to guess?<<
> ______________________________
>   

Now, I need to read this bit again to be sure, but didn't Severian react 
with disgust? I remember thinking that Sev's impression was that the 
white-haired fellow was a dirty old man, possibly that he was hitting on 
Sev obliquely. I took it as Severian's shock in going from an aesthetic 
life to a sexual one. "Where I used to see icons, now I see dingdongs! I 
am both aroused and disturbed."

I expect that everything's correct concerning what you folks have said 
about the plot behind the scenes. But it's also fun (and I think useful) 
when we can go back to the original impression and feeling we took away 
from a first reading.