(urth) (no subject)

[Lee Berman]

>Jeff Wilson: I'm judging this on the basis that Ouen has a cloisonne of his 
>mother, apparently a self-portrait since the painting business comes down her 
>side of the family and Dorcas does various little artisty things while 
>she's with Severian. The obsessive boatman wouldn't have wanted to part 
>with his last picture of her esp to a child who might lose it, so there 
>must have been another for him to keep somewhere.
 
Hm..interesting. Self-portrait. Dorcas is artistic, as we know from her role
in set design with Dr. Talos' troupe. Still, I think there might be an even 
better artist than her in the family.
 
With regard to the locket with Dorcas' likeness, we actually do know quite a
bit about what happened to it. The Boatman is quite the opposite from obsessive 
about keeping material things as he tells Severian in describing the loft he 
currently sleeps in:
 
>There isn't a piece of cloisonne in it, or a garment, or so much as a nail from 
>the old shop. I tried to keep a locket and Cas's combs but everything's gone.
 
When we hear from Ouen on the subject:
 
"My father had a locket with her likeness. Once when I was twenty or so I came to 
see him and found out he'd pledged it.  I'd come into a bit of money.....and I went
to the pawnbroker's and paid the pledge and took it. I still wear it, sieur."
 
There is a BotNS story about a famous artist who draws likenesses of the people he 
cares about and who has trouble hanging on to material possessions. The artist is quite
a charismatic ladies man as well as being a trickster and a liar. Perhaps it was (monkey-
armed) Fechin who drew that portrait.