(urth) Faterh Inire Theory cont.

[Jerry Friedman]

From: Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie>


From: "David Stockhoff" <dstockhoff at verizon.net>


> Wooden ships used to be carefully and colorfully painted. And rooms in those 
>ships would be opened up for dinner and divided up for sleep, much as larger 
>rooms in older buildings have been divided up for cubicles or apartments for 
>about 100 years now.
> 
> But that's different. And imagine the problems you'd have with painted rooms in 
>a starship, even without flaking paint.

> Actually, I can't.
...

Me neither.

>> I like the thought that clouds relate to the Fortunate Cloud. But painted 
>>vaulted ceilings tend to
>> have skies painted on them. Such a ceiling could not be more ordinary in a 
>>palace.

I agree.  Everything we know about the antechamber seems normal for a palace in 
which an
underground waiting room was expanded as Jonas describes.

> It would be quite remarkable in a starship.
...

Not so much for the painting, in my opinion, as for the vaulting.  If rooms in a 
starship have vaulted
ceilings, you get lots of strangely shaped spaces between them and the floor 
above.  Of course,
those spaces /could/ be just right for the flux capacitors...

> Anyway, I don't want to get into a war over such details.  I am defending the 
>theory, but as I said I
> am not wedded to it.  And our interpretations of BotNS do not stand or fall on 
>the question of
> whether the Antechamber was or was not part of Jonas's starship.

No, wait!  This has to be do-or-die!

> But I ask again: has anyone any better explanation for Jonas's (confirmed) 
>architectural observations
> and the other things I mentioned?

He just recognizes that the antechamber looks like a bunch of rooms joined into 
one.

What details does he have?  The room is big, with a low ceiling, and he 
recognizes it as a drop ceiling.
There are lots of alcoves and niches around the walls, presumably the outlines 
of the original rooms,
and there's a uniform tile floor.  That might be enough.  Big rooms usually have 
high ceilings; this one's
low ceiling suggests the ceiling isn't the original.  And big rooms in a palace 
might be expected to have
neat, symmetrical plans; this one's irregular outlines, probably shaped like 
parts of rooms, would also
be a clue.

Since no pillars are mentioned, maybe only the walls are original.  You seem to 
be suggesting that
Jonas recognizes something about them, which Severian never mentions, as 
starship architecture.
But I think there's enough other information for him to figure out what 
happened.

Stay tuned for the next episode of This Old House Absolute.

Jerry Friedman



      
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