(urth) Father Inire: teratoid

[James Wynn]

The more I consider it, the better I like the biohazard symbol as a 
candidate. It has tentacles and each one has a small pair of horns on top.

u+16b9

>>> From: "Son of Witz" <Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org 
>>> <mailto:Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>>
>>> So, of course I'm trying to figure out what this teratoid symbol 
>>> LOOKS like.
>>> I see that it is mostly a medical term for monstrous abnormality and 
>>> tumours and such., but I don't find associated symbols with an image 
>>> search.
>>
>> On Dec 15, 2010, at 9:43 AM, "Gerry Quinn" <gerryq at indigo.ie 
>> <mailto:gerryq at indigo.ie>> wrote:
>> I envisage a sort of red octopussy symbol, with rotational symmetry.
>> Note that the symbol appears on each mirror also:
>>
>> ----------------------
>> I was delighted to hear his voice, and largely in the hope that he 
>> would speak again, I asked, "Where are we, then?"
>> "On Urth," he answered, and strode across the room to the folded 
>> panels. Their backs were set with clustered diamonds, as I now saw, 
>> and enameled with such twisted signs as had been on the door.
>>
>> -----------------------
>>
>> It may just be alienese for 'quantum reflector' or whatever the 
>> proper term for the mirrors is.
>>
>> That the sign seems teratoid to Severian may not reflect its true 
>> meaning, even if it is intended as a hint to the reader that monsters 
>> can lurk in mirrors.  Then again he associates the symbol with 
>> cacogens, whom he thinks of - at least at this time - as monsters.
>>
>> An actual meaning of 'monsters' seems a bit unlikely, especially 
>> engraved on every panel.
>
> From: "Son of Witz" <Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org 
> <mailto:Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>>
> Thanks for pointing out the second mention of the "twisted signs". 
>  Every description of things in the book seem to be repeated, phrased 
> slightly differently. Trying To hunt these down and compile them is tough.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20101215/8b998e3a/attachment-0003.htm>