{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2054",
    "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": 2054,
    "subject": "Infrequently Asked Questions",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-12-25T15:44:43+00:00",
    "last": "1999-12-25T15:44:43+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0657@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Talarican",
        "address": "chemmie at mindspring.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-12-25T15:44:43+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Infrequently Asked Questions",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I was interested to see the notion of a Wolfe FAQ floated a short time back.\nIt would appear just for the Urth cycle alone that in addition to the Big\nQuestions catalogued in _Lexicon Urthus_, and this list, and other lists or\nnewsgroups, an entire encyclopedia could be filled with Little Questions and\nclues or conjectures about them.\nThose competent critics among us always have always declared that Wolfe does\nnot write in vain or include interesting details for mere texture or\nembellishment. With that in mind, B/UNS is a veritable mine (without the\nrisk of man-apes or stompin' towers, happily) of the Wolfean tossed-off\nreference and significant interrupted dialog that to my knowlege have not\nbeen brought up or at least brought to some semisatisfactory consensus or\nagreement to disagree.\n\nF'rinstance :\n(references are to volume, with UNS =V, and chapter number, to avoid edition\nproblems)\n\nII:XXVI Dorcas tells Severian what she could remember being taught about the\nConciliator, ending by saying there were other, frightening legends she\ncould not clearly recall. She then asks Sev if the brown book contains any\ntales of the Conciliator. He states that he looked and \"saw that it did\" but\nthey could not stop and read at that time. So far as I could tell, there is\nno further mention of this matter specifically in BNS.\n_Lexicon Urthus_, in its summary of the known or conjectured contents of the\nbrown book, says nothing about any Conciliator stories per se. What did Sev\nfind in the brown book regarding the Conciliator?\n\nII:X when Severian informs Vodalus of the Claw, Vodalus mutters about the\ntrouble it could cause him and his movement, then starts to ask \"You must\ntell me-\" only to be interrupted. What was Vodalus about to ask?\n(\"- how'n tarnation didja GET that, anyway?!\")\n\nIII:XXXIII When Sev first meets Famulimus, Barbatus and Ossipago in\nBaldander's castle (the first occasion in Sev's own subjective lifetime, for\nthose Urthlings inclined to quibble over how the Hierodules perceive time),\nFamulimus makes a gesture which Sev describes as \"meaningless\". In the\nfollowing chapter Famulimus makes another \"meaningless\" gesture which this\ntime reminds Sev of the living statues of the House Absolute which seem to\nhave been modeled after Barbatus' and Famulimus' particular race. Maybe the\ngestures conveyed no meaning to Severian, but are we to suppose Mr. Wolfe\nwent to so much trouble to describe \"meaningless gestures\"? What did the\ngestures mean?"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}