{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1161",
    "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": 1161,
    "subject": "Third Rock from the New Sun",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-10-12T18:36:25+00:00",
    "last": "1998-10-13T08:56:23+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0019-0096@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-12T18:36:25+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Third Rock from the New Sun",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Time for another of my far-fetched genealogical forays. Lupines still\nreeling over my claim that Catherine, Sev's Mom, is Valeria's daughter,\nmight be advised to skip this one.\n\nThis one's about aliens, the cacogens of Urth.\n\nAs most of us are well aware, all the aliens in the New Sun series have\nmythic, as opposed to saintly, names. (Father Inire's is a little hard to\ndiscern, but it's Abraxas.) Three characters, however, have names that are\n*both* mythic and saintly:\n\nPaeon/Palaemon (who are the same entity), and Merryn. \n\nMerryn's name is a variant on Myrine, meaning 'sea goddess' (note: Palaemon\ntoo is a marine god). Robert Graves lists the following variants of\nMyrine--Marian, Ay-Mari, Mariamne, Marienna, and Mariandyne--I suspect if\nwe looked hard enough we could find a Merryn, or weld one from a\ncombination of the above. Also note how Wolfe at one point describes Merryn\nas an oread, a sea nymph.\n\nAll three of the above, I'm arguing, are cacogens attempting to pass as\nhumans, and all wear very lifelike human masks. Only their eyes reveal\ntheir nonterrestrial origin; this is why Palaemon wears an optical device\nfor a disguise, just as Merryn wears a mask (this also accounts for why\nMerryn looks the same as the time she did when Sev the toddler ran an\nerrand to the Witches Keep. And it's all right if witches have spooky\neyes<g>).\n\nI'm speculating that Palaemon/Paeon is much older than his sister. Merryn\nappears to be a young adult who's being taught in matters sorcerous\n(actually high tech extraterrestrial) by her Mother, Camoena (the Cumaean).\n\n\nFather Inire--who built the Botanic Gardens especially for the Cumaean--is\nthe father.\n\nFamilimus and Barbatus are shorter-lived larval children. Note how both\nFamilimus and the Cumaean both speak in blank verse. Note too how Hildigrin\nhas seen \"metal and jeweled\" figures visiting the Cumaean--this is\nOssipago, with his two larval wards.\n\nThe living statues around the House Absolute are some form of intermediate\nform--pupae or eggs--and are always described as looking like the unmasked\nHierodules, who are made in the image of the Hierogrammates (cf.\nhellgrammite, aquatic larvae of the Dobson fly). Note as well the butterfly\nform of Tzadkiel.\n\nMany of the cacogens have second names that are either variants of the\nfirst or shortenings. E.g., Camoena/Cumaean; Tzadkiel/Zak; and\nPalaemon/Paeon.\n\nMerryn (a famula) has spent time in Famulorum, where she's met the 13 year\nold Thecla, who is Appian's daughter, conceived of course before his\nunmanning, with a concubine mother who later marries Engino, Thea's\nfather-to-be.\n\nI don't have to tell you what their favorite tv show is.\n\nRobert Borski"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0019-0098@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Stephen Witowski",
        "address": "stephenw at libraries.manchester.gov.uk"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-13T08:56:23+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Third Rock from the New Sun",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0019-0096@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": " Robert Borski Wrote :"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Time for another of my far-fetched genealogical forays. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "You can say that again. Do you think Wolfe meant ALL of this when he wrote\nTBoNS, I think not.\nYour evidence is very thin and seems to consist of wild speculations and\nintuitive leaps. I don't think Wolfe wrote TBoNS so that we would spend all\nour time looking for family relationships (most of which are not there) but\nto grasp the meaning behind the story. I think we are in danger of missing\nthen wood for the trees by following some lines of argument posted here.\n\nI'm sorry if this sounds negative but I just had to say it.\n\nStephen Witkowski\nLibrarian/Information Officer\nCity Architect's Library , Manchester. UK."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}