(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 73, Issue 34

[Jeff Wilson]

On 9/19/2010 5:38 PM, Andrew Mason wrote:
> Jeff Wilson wrote:
>
>> On 9/19/2010 12:54 PM, Andrew Mason wrote:
>>> At the end of BOTNS, when Severian enters the Autarch's apartment, he
>>> finds a laboratory containing, among other things, 'the fabled emerald
>>> bench'.  Does anyone have any idea what this might be?
>>
>> Probably a reference to the Emerald Tablet aka the Emerald Table, upon
>> which is graven the undoubtable truths of alchemy including the formula
>> for gold, the Philosopher's Stone, the care and feeding of homunculi and
>> mandragoras, etc.
>>
>>         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet
>>
>
> Interesting - and it's about the power of the sun.

The sun references are intriguing, implying yet another time-loop, or 
perhaps that an autarch of the distant pre-Typhonian succession somehow 
knew something of what was to come.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >