(urth) Pike's ghost

[David Stockhoff]

On 12/1/2011 9:47 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

> *From:* Lee Berman<mailto:severiansola at hotmail.com>
>> Good question on the secret words. I was always under the impression that there was a complex collection of words which were unique to each Autarchial gateway to secret places.
>>
>> It would be more efficient if there was only one word for all of them. But in UotNS, on Flood Day, when Severian is in the secret passage which takes him to the throne room (and allows him to encounter his mother and Agia (the assassin), he notes that many Autarchial lovers were given the secret words to allow trysts and those lovers gave the words to their own paramours, and so on. Thecla's cadre having access to the Antechamber supports the idea that some of the secret words were given out, and thus it would be better to have distinct words for each secret portal.
> There is no reason to suppose either that there is one word for all,
> or that each portal has its own word. Something in between is most
> probable. In any case, one fact we do know is that Severian did indeed
> know the words for the ancient suite. [Perhaps it it had been used
> more often, the password would have been changed occasionally.]
Somewhere in between is my best guess as well.

>> Yes, I don't think we are really given enough information to know for sure if any autarchs had used that suite.
> Except the bit where Severian tells us they used the suite. Of course
> he could have been wrong and they just stored a lot of stuff there,
> and obviously there’s no proof that they didn’t inherit some stuff
> from Typhon whether they used it or not, just as some of the books in
> the library undoubtedly date from Typhon’s time.
We don;t know how may used it. It may have been few.

>> We know it wasn't used much and, as you say, the information we do get
>> supports larry's theory that the Mandragora and the rest date back
> to Typhon's time.
> The information we get is that it was ancient, and the decor is
> described. Does anyone know if the decor in Typhon’s time is described
> in Urth (and Typhon’s quarters in the mountains), and whether it
> matches the suite? If not, the information supports only the idea that
> the suite and its contents are ancient. On the other hand, if for
> example chairs were typically used in Typhon’s time, we would know
> that the suite was furnished long after.
Including the chairs, which sound like beanbag chairs from the 1970s,
the furnishings are plainly late 20th century and later, with what seem
to be curved computer desks, fabric stretched across plastic skeletons,
and so on.

Severian's definition of a chair is going to be different from and
probably narrower than ours, so I think to say there are no chairs
because Severian said so is to believe Severian a bit naively. Of course
there is seating.