{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1003",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1003,
    "subject": "Appian's reluctance",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-07-17T11:24:53+00:00",
    "last": "1998-07-17T11:24:53+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0017-0031@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Parmenter",
        "address": "dan at lec.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-07-17T11:24:53+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Appian's reluctance",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: m.driussi at genie.com\nRe: the incident with the Book of Mirrors.  Granted that Appian knows\nmore about Severian's destiny as future autarch than Severian (who is\nclueless at that point), and granted that Appian is suprised at the\nsudden request, thinking that he had more time, still I think this\nepisode is more an innocent mistake rather than anything sinister by\nAppian."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Oh, I never thought it was sinister per se, like I said, maybe a\nlittle foolish and/or vain,"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "IMHO this is a human touch, a showing that it isn't quite a vast\nconspiracy, with everybody-but-Severian having 100% knowledge of not\nonly him but their own role to play; or, the antithesis--that even\nthe finest alien conspiracy is subject to bungling from participants\nwho really should know better."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Definitely.  I think that this is indeed, one of the more appealling\naspects of the series.  It's difficult to imagine Agia being any kind\nof willing participant in anything other than advancing her own cause,\nyet she clearly plays an important role in several of the key\nincidents in Severian's development.  I suppose many of the \"players\"\nare unwitting.  Thecla's role seems to be to teach Severian something\nabout love and to perhaps give him a bit more \"book learning\" outside\nof the practical arts of his profession.  But her presence at the\nCitadel is also due to her relationship to Thea, and by extension\nVodalus.  Perhaps part of her role is simply to give Severian an idea\nof what life in the House Absolute is like.  And of course the roles\nchange and the agendas change.  Juturna's saving Severian could serve\nthe ends of either \"side\", so what impulse guided her?\n\nD"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}