{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1163",
    "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": 1163,
    "subject": "Do I have to use a grip on you mama?",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-10-13T07:07:13+00:00",
    "last": "1998-10-13T07:07:13+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0019-0099@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Parmenter",
        "address": "dan at lec.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-13T07:07:13+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Do I have to use a grip on you mama?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: \"Robert Borski\" <rborski at coredcs.com>\nStinky the First (ne Reechy) aka Ymar the Almost Just was a torturer\nautarch. And I'm not sure what you mean by a RNA transfer (especially since\nin all likelihood Palaemon isn't human)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "As 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. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "All 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>)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Merryn's apparent agelessness could easily be explained by other\nmeans: in fact, she and the Cumaean are the very characters who tell\nus what's available in Urthly cosmetic surgery.  Merryn (I believe)\neven implies that they know how to do some of these things, which\nwould fit in well with their seeming roles as both intelligence\noperatives and keepers of obscure knowledge.\n\nAs for Palaemon, I don't buy your hypothesis, though I admit that my\nreasoning is mostly at the \"gut\" level.  As I've suggested before,\nSeverian has several predecessors, only some of whom happen to be\ndifferent versions of himself.  The \"forces of good\" had it in mind\nthat a torturer might be the one to bring a new sun before Severian\ncame along and Severian himself plays a role in disseminating the\nidea.  Palaemon went through some of the same experiences Sev did\n(being exiled, having some adventures with a cool sword) but proved to\nbe a bit of a cul-de-sac, new sun-wise.  Indeed, I believe I've even\nargued that Palaemon could almost be a candidate for the \"Severian\" of\nGene Wolfe's proposed novella (discussed in OTTER) that evolved into\nBOTNS.  Somehow, my intuitive sense of literary appropriateness is\nbetter served by Palaemon being human, a teacher/mentor for Severian.\n\nBarring these \"intuitive\" arguments, perhaps I need to find examples\nof characters with mythic/saintly names.\n\nD"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}