(urth) The Cistern under the bell keep

[David Stockhoff]

And the flushing of the vinculum foreshadows the flooding of Urth.

On 11/12/2010 2:49 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 11/10/2010 4:19 PM, Son of Witz wrote:
>> Severian mentions the cistern under the Bell Keep at least 8 times in 
>> his five volumes.
>> Does anyone find a particular significance to it? I haven't.  He 
>> seems to use it for comparison only, but it keeps coming up 
>> throughout the books.
>
> Well it provides foreshadowing of the flushing of the vinculum. It 
> also gives a plausible reason for a lifelong dweller in urban medieval 
> squalor to be familiar with the appearance and other properties of a 
> large volume of clear, fresh water, the better to analogize and 
> metaphorize for the first world reader.
>