{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1131",
    "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": 1131,
    "subject": "Digest urth.v019.n010",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-10-05T22:26:55+00:00",
    "last": "1998-10-06T09:26:53+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0019-0051@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jon Camfield",
        "address": "griffjon at mail.utexas.edu"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-05T22:26:55+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v019.n010",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Mark Millman writes:\n[snip!]  The name may be the result\nof witches' having use-names and true-names; the\ndesignation \"witches\" implies study or use of magic, and\nwe know that at least some magic does work on Urth, as\nSeverian's duel with Declan demonstrates.  Hiding one's\ntrue name to prevent its being used in hostile magic is a\nwidely-distributed, very ancient magical practice."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Two things-- Magic in Urth is very very limited, and for all intents and\npurposes does not exist (according to Wolfe) the Declan duel Wolfe\ndescribes as more psionic and hypnoyic than anything else.  \n\nOf course, this doesn't mean that the Witches don't hide the true name, or,\nin truth, never even knew the true name.  Sev was supposedly born in the\nObuilette ar right before Catherine was put in it.  If he had a twin\nsister, she would have been given to the witches possibly without giving\nthem her given name, whilst Severian kept his as he remained in the tower\nwith his mother for longer (note that Sev doesn't remember a sister when he\nfinally remembers his mother)\n\nI think Barbea is unlikely as a candidate as she is a khaibit and therefore\na clone of the original (somewhere I think Inire or Apian came out and said\nthat directly).  Merryn is a candidate only because she has little to no\nother plot value (reference to the Catherine of the wheel-- what other plot\nimportance does that woman have?), and is a witch.\n\nIn somewhat of a ironic idea (Wolfe employ irony? never!) Sev's sister\ncould be an unmentioned person in the Healer's Tower.  Master Gurloes\nmentions this tower in one of his rambling lectures to Sev (in which he\ntends to drop hints he probably shouldn't), but it is never made issue\nagain.  The sister would be a 'light' sister to contrast with Sev's 'dark'\nupbringing, and would be a healer, in line with the Pelerine thread, and\nwould still be within the complex of the Citadel.\n\n...Or this could all be a red herring.  Many road signs (some of which\nexist) pointing towards a nothingness.\n\nMy $0.04 (inflation's a bitch.)\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------\nJon Camfield      \"GriffJon\"  \t|Webmaster, Plan II Honors Program:\nGriffJon at mail.utexas.edu   \t| www.dla.utexas.edu/~plan2\nHomepage, Gallery, Resume:\t|Channel Manager, Undernet #Poetry\n ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~griffjon \t| www.tripod.com/~ircpoetry\n------------------------------------------------------------------\n\"The most incomprehensible fact about nature is that it is comprehensible\"\n-- Albert Einstein"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0019-0052@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mark Millman",
        "address": "mark_millman at hmco.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-06T09:26:53+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v019.n010",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0019-0051@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "On 6 October at 3:27 am GMT, Jon Canfield wrote:\nMark Millman writes:\n[snip!]  The name may be the result\nof witches' having use-names and\ntrue-names; the designation \"witches\"\nimplies study or use of magic, and\nwe know that at least some magic\ndoes work on Urth, as Severian's\nduel with Declan demonstrates.\nHiding one's true name to prevent\nits being used in hostile magic is a\nwidely-distributed, very ancient\nmagical practice."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Two things-- Magic in Urth is very very limited,\nand for all intents and purposes does not exist\n(according to Wolfe) the Declan duel Wolfe\ndescribes as more psionic and hypnoyic than\nanything else.\n\nOf course, this doesn't mean that the Witches\ndon't hide the true name, or, in truth, never even\nknew the true name."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "You're right, of course.  I should have said \"some-\nthing thought to be magic\".  Which, as you kindly\nindicate, still permits my argument.\n\nMark Millman"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}