(urth) Faterh Inire Theory cont.

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

--- On Wed, 12/15/10, Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie> wrote:

From: Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie>
Subject: Re: (urth) Faterh Inire Theory cont.
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2010, 12:27 PM


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


> Here's the main point: the House Absolute and the antechamber are partly based on the palace of the Sun King at Verseilles, the very pinnacle of ornamental aristocratic uselessness. Thecla's memory of her youth illustrates this uselessness. Imagine our heroes caught there, wandering among dusty rooms and secret doors and hidden closets. They pass rich chambers and hurrying servants. They go down steps and find a door out of our near future with a red symbol warning of monsters.

There may be some resemblances to Versailles, particularly in that the House Absolute was intended as a seat of government away from the capital, and that it grew slowly over a long period with many changes and alterations. There are some differences too; the House Absolute is built underground, it contains a secret second house, and it appears toi extend all the way to Nessus.  Its usefulness or otherwise is neither here nor there, I think.
---Not the usefulness of the House. The uselessness of the aristocracy. And it is relevant if the shippiness of the Antechamber distracts from or otherwise unnecessarily complicates that very simple reading.

I don't see why any of this would prevent the incorporation of a repurposed starship if one was to hand.  We know that such repurposing of spacecraft is done elsewhere in the Commonwealth.  Also, when making mental images of the place based on Severian's descriptions, it may be worth remembering that unlike us he grew up in such a repurposed spacecraft.

---As someone pointed out, Severian ought to have recognized a ship for that very reason. 
> At no time does Jonas, who is now "metal" Jonas, "meat" Jonas having been stunned, mention ships. When he mentions the ceiling and its compartmentalization, he uses the language of an ancient, long-occupied terrestrial palace. At this point they are deep underground.

He dreams about his spaceship while he is there.  (So does Severian!)  I don't see anything in his language that refers specifically to terrestrial structure.  He says "we used to call that a drop ceiling".  Maybe he meant "when we were visiting palaces on Urth" or maybe he meant "in my job as a spaceman" - he doesn't elaborate on which.
---You're right---he doesn't say, "Me an' me maties used to be callin that thar a drop ceiling when we wuz cubicle gnomes on the insurance adjustin' ship Pequod."

As for being underground, maybe the parts of the House Absolute were excavated, or maybe they were built and covered over.  If one part was built around a crashed interstellar ship (as Versailles itself accreted around a huntiung lodge) it might even have started off in a crater, making the workmens' task easier!
--Sure, if there was nothing left of the ship but a huge crater! Waitaminute...


> I really don't understand why this idea is being pursued further.

You and others have pointed out certain difficulties with the conception; I would say they are all perfectly answerable with a little imagination.  It's equally true that the clues I have suggested lead in this direction clearly seem quite unconvincing to some, although many have attempted to find their way through Wolfe's labyrinths by following threads that seem even finer!

I still find the idea quite interesting and by no means too implausible to discount.  However, I will leave it at, unless I find some huge hitherto unnoticed lead.  In any case, unless one starts spinning fanciful secret histories, it seems to have no huge import for the story one way or the other - it just slightly modifies our impressions of Urth.

- Gerry Quinn









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