(urth) Monkey business

[Jeff Wilson]

On 7/8/2010 11:07 PM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> (** That his name is not given may or may not be important.)
>
> Old Man and Rudesind both knew or met Fechin when they were boys, and the
> old men were thought by Sev to be about the same age. Each had their picture
> drawn or painted by Fechin when they were boys.

Sev may be poor at judging the ages of the very old, given his 
infrequent contact with them other than Master Malrubius.  Casdoe's 
father Old Man seems to have been close to Fechin's age (though not a 
classmate, or he could have given him the paper much sooner), while 
Rudesind was a boy of 13 or so when Fechin was already an established 
artist. But Rudesind was also a boy artist, so maybe Old Man is telling 
a story about his boyhood friend _Rudesind_, but mis-calling him Fechin 
due to old age, like he calls Severian "Becan".

And like you said, Old Man is is not given a personal name, and the 
children duplicate the narrator's name, so *some* kind of onomastic 
slight of hand is at work there.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >