{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1010",
    "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": 1010,
    "subject": "Autarch",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-07-19T22:42:38+00:00",
    "last": "1998-07-19T22:42:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0017-0043@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "J. Schultz",
        "address": "jschultz at wcnet.org"
      },
      "date": "1998-07-19T22:42:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Autarch",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "It takes me a while to get around to reading all my mail.  This is in\nresponse to the difference between Autarch and Monarch.  As we have all\nfigured by now Autarch means one who rules themselves.  This idea works into\none of the themes I see present in the first set of books (tBotNS).  At each\nstep in Severian's development we see him cast off the power of one\nauthority after another.  He breaks his ties from the authority of the\nguild, the Archon and his post as Lictor, Typhon, etc.  It all leads up to\nthe point where just before the Lake people attack the castle of Baldanders,\nwhen Severian says (to paraphrase) I began to follow the Increate's\nauthority above all others.  Severian has become his own man, as it were.\nHe decides for himself what is right and wrong, moral and evil, with a\npersonal relationship with God.  Thus I feel that the title \"Autarch\" is\nsymbolic of this change and that the title has more thematic meaning, rather\nthan any real practical meaning in the way of legal proceedure.  A rose is a\nrose is a rose.  Or, it doesn't really matter what you call him, the idea is\nthat he is the top dog and no one is higher, the one man who rules himself.\nAs we find out, however, the Autarch is the subject of the Hierodules and\nother higher powers (at least in some sense of the word).  We can't forget\nthat the message of tBotNS is basically spiritual and religious, whether we\nlike it or not.  In my mind it is the redemption of a torturer who is lost\nin an immoral and decaying world.\n\nAs far as what would have happened had Appian let Severian enter Yesod, he\nmost likely would have failed having not learned the important lessons that\nwere to come.  However, He would have EATEN Appian's brains AT THAT TIME.\nAppian even says, \"Gee, sorry I'm so shocked but I thought I had more time.\"\nWhich leads me to believe that Appian knows that Sev will take the throne\nand he knows that to take the throne he (Appian) has to be dead.  I would\nbalk too if my replacement walked in the door and said, \"Well, I'm ready,\ntake me to the garden and get your brains ready.\"  While Sev doesn't say\nthis it is percieved this way by Appian.\n\nLet me say that the story has already faded in my mind and mingled with half\nideas, my own experiences, and the way I would like it to be.  (as I'm sure\nhappens to us all)\n\nOne timeless question  (FunkMonkey steps in line behind hundreds of\nphilosophers, ancient to modern)   How much free will does Severian have?\nWhen does Tra. KNOW Severain has passed.  Have they engineered him from the\nbegining and so no test is needed?  He has some power from the White\nFountain long before heading into space, as Sev himself says, 'as if the\npresentment of his future came back through time to him.'  Assuming he\nraised Triskle from the dead he has had his 'powers' from the begining.\nEveryone on Urth in Sev's time knows of the Concilliator.  The Concilliator\nis Sev returning triumphant.  Thus Severian has already suceeded before he\nbegun!  Or has he?  Time travel always throws me through a logic loop.  Like\nasking the question \"If I went back in time and killed my past self, who\nwould grow up to kill me?\"  Any thoughts?  This could be and endless\ndiscussion.\n\nFunkMonkey\n     with the logical MonkeyWrench\n\nJ. Schutlz\njschultz at wcnet.org"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}