(urth) Shadow, Chapter X
Allan Anderson
rubel at goosemoon.org
Thu Nov 13 11:40:53 PST 2008
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.
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