(urth) a lurker asks a question

[Jeff Wilson]

Adam Thornton wrote:
> 
> On Sep 30, 2008, at 7:19 AM, James Wynn wrote:
> 
>> >Matt asks:
>> >I love this scene, but other than the need for Severian to get the books for Thecla,
>> >I'm wondering what the Point is...What does this chapter contribute to the story?
>> >...What am I missing?  Surely there's more to it than that.
>>  
>> When people mention to me that they feel something is going on under 
>> the floorboards in this scene, I always direct them to this clause:
>>  
>> "...quite suddenly I felt that he and I were dead, and the darkness 
>> surrounding us was grave soil presing in about our eyes..."

A page after meeting Rudesind, Sev procceds to Ultan's study via an 
unrailed circular stair that descends at least 20 feet into darkness. He 
also passes some columns sculpted with "sleeping" faces. Upon meeting 
Ultan, he remarks to himself on Ultan's beard like a whitish garment and 
his extreme age, before discovering the man is blind, precipitating the 
meditation on feeling dead. A bit later, Ultan calls both Sev and Cyby 
young men, despite Sev estimating Cyby being in his forties.  This could 
be a reflection on Ultan's very long exultant lifespan, or that Ultan's 
perception of passing time ended with his sight. He is living in the 
past, thus he has ceased living in the present.

Internally, this may just be Sev's reaction to the general creepiness of 
the situation. Extrenally, it may represent a burial in the years and 
ages gone by. (Ultan recalls the blossoming trees on the curators' feast 
day in the now treeless Grand Court.)


> Somewhere--and I don't remember where--Severian also recoils when seeing 
> a particular book, because it seems to him like he's suddenly run across 
> a rotting corpse.  Can someone point that citation out?  I think that 
> ties in here somewhere too.

I'd like the citation as well, please.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >