{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1760",
    "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'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1760,
    "subject": "Thus Misspoke Zarathustra?",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-08-28T10:18:28+00:00",
    "last": "1999-08-28T10:18:28+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0079@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jim Henley",
        "address": "jlhenley at erols.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-08-28T10:18:28+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Thus Misspoke Zarathustra?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hi, I'm new. Somewhat to my surprise, the archives search engine for this\nlist turns up no references to Zoroastrianism, so this may not be\ncompletely old ground.\n\nI've been thinking for a little while that the theology of the Commonwealth\nhas a lot of Zoroastrian feel to it. There's Dr. Talos/tr. Wolfe's use of\nMeschia and Meschiane in the play; there's the explicit reference to Ahura\nMazda in the \"Meschia\" entry in Castle of the Otter. There's the very\nlate-arriving messiah. There's the lack of a chosen people that would give\nmore of a judaic feel. (There may be more in the Lexicon too - sorry, it's\non my birthday list.)\n\nThen this morning, the following two things slammed into each other:\n\n\"The most important thing about Zoroastrianism is the dedication\nto ethical and moral excellence. The motto of the faith is:\n     GOOD THOUGHTS, GOOD WORDS, GOOD DEEDS.\"\n\t\t\t\talt.religion.zoroastrianism FAQ\n\n\"And the Ascian, his voice no louder than my own had been, and\nperhaps even softer, answered, 'How shall the state be most\nvigorous? It shall be most vigorous when it is without conflict.\nHow shall disagreement be banished? By banishing the four causes\nof disagreement: lies, foolish talk, boastful talk, and talk\nwhich serves only to incite quarrels. How shall the four causes\nbe banished? By speaking only correct thought. Then shall the\nstate be without disagreement. Being without disagrement it\nshall be without conflict. Being without conflict it shall be\nvigorous, strong and secure.'  \"\n\t\t\t\tCITADEL V, last page\n\nSo CORRECT THOUGHTS become CORRECT WORDS which lead to CORRECT DEEDS.\nIt seems like it could be an ironic transformation of the Zoroastrian\nmotto, a secularized heresy if you will.\n\nGeography Department: I have no trouble accepting that Severian et\nal are in the Southern hemisphere. I'm still confused, largely because\nof the mountains being to the _east_ of Nessus. It kills the careless\nimpression I formed on my first reading that Nessus was Buenos Aires\nwas a tribute to Borges. And if they're the Andes, there just doesn't\nseem to be enough room west of them for everything that Wolfe fits in.\nIn Chile the Andes come right down to the ocean at present, unless my\nAtlas is very wrong. This is true of Peru too in the especially appealing\nparts (south - it would be pleasant to identify Lake Diuturna with\nTiticaca). After that you're way far north.\n\nEven tilting the axis (permissible for a million years in the\nfuture, I'd say) doesn't by itself create more land. The only\nthing I can imagine so far is that the continents themselves\nhave shifted (we're told the river has) in the intervening time.\nCan anyone help me out here?\n\nBest,\n\n\nJim\n *****************************************************\n \"Sweet music makes the same old story new.\n  That is a lie. But it will have to do.\"\n              -- RS Gwynn, \"Ars Poetica\""
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}