{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1447",
    "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": 1447,
    "subject": "Symbolism of Dorcas",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-03-23T18:43:30+00:00",
    "last": "1999-03-25T23:47:47+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0024-0086@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "CRCulver",
        "address": "crculver at aol.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-03-23T18:43:30+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Symbolism of Dorcas",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I've long thought that the scene in the BotNS in which Dorcas is eating a\npomegranate (cannot remember the volume, but I believe it is the second), has\nsome interesting symbolism. Severian remarks that she looks like a vampire\nbecause her lips are stained red, and as vampires are called the \"undead,\"\nDorcas herself has returned from death.\nAlso, I'm wondering if the pomegranate itself has any meaning in relation to\nthe myth of Persephone, who after eating a pomegranate was doomed to spend\nhalf of the year in Hades before returning to the land of the living. Dorcas\nherself has spent some time in the realm of the dead before her return to the\nEarth.\n\n- Christopher Culver <crculver at aol.com>"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0024-0088@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Roy C. Lackey",
        "address": "rclackey at stic.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-03-24T01:07:04+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Symbolism of Dorcas",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0024-0086@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Christopher Culver wrote:\nI've long thought that the scene in the BotNS in which Dorcas is eating a\npomegranate (cannot remember the volume, but I believe it is the second),\nhas"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "some interesting symbolism. Severian remarks that she looks like a vampire\nbecause her lips are stained red, and as vampires are called the \"undead,\"\nDorcas herself has returned from death.<<\n\n    Actually, it was the other way around. Sev had the pomegranate, Dorcas\nan apple in _Shadow_, chapter XXXIV. Sev recalls the scene to her in\n_Sword_, chapter X, where she remarks: \"It always seems, though, that when I\nwake up you're bending over me.\"\n    Sev then says: \"You said I reminded you of a vampire once, because I had\nbeen eating a pomegranate and my lips were stained with red.\" Interestingly,\nin the scene referred to she didn't actually say \"vampire\" but \"like a black\nbat bending over me.\" Sev's perfect memory falters (again?) or his\nimagination is at work.\n\nRoy"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0024-0093@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "CRCulver",
        "address": "crculver at aol.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-03-25T23:47:47+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Symbolism of Dorcas",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0024-0088@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Roy C. Lackey said:\n<<Actually, it was the other way around. Sev had the pomegranate, Dorcas\nan apple in _Shadow_, chapter XXXIV.>>\n\nWhoa, looks like I was way off. Anyway, if Dorcas had the apple, what can we\nwork in concerning the Garden of Evil motif? After all, Dorcas was the First\nWoman in \"Eschatology and Genesis.\"\n\n- Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}