{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2058",
    "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": 2058,
    "subject": "Still More Infrequently Asked Questions",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-12-31T09:57:16+00:00",
    "last": "2000-01-04T10:28:45+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0663@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Talarican",
        "address": "chemmie at mindspring.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-12-31T09:57:16+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Still More Infrequently Asked Questions",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I:V Adolescent Sev asks Rundesind, whom he just met in the pinakotheken,\nregarding the class of armigers: \"What possible help can they give the\nworld?\". Rundesind replies \"Why, what help was they to begin? Do you know?\".\n(There is the obvious facile answer that armigers are a legacy of an ancient\nmilitaristic equestrian class, but why was this question brought up and just\nleft hanging if there isn't more to it than that? Or was Wolfe's point\nmerely to have Rundesind chide young Sev about presuming to criticize social\nstructures he does not understand?)\n\nI:V Why is the \"room maintained  [by the librarians]... against the return\nof the Autarch Sulpicius\" with its \"great ebony [book]case\"? Was this added\nfor texture, or is there some significance to it? What is the story behind\nthat? Do the librarians seriously expect Sulpicius to return? And what is he\nsupposed to do with that room when he does? Or, as is more likely, he issued\nan edict during his reign reserving the room, which his successors never got\naround to rescinding or following up on? Was he a benefactor of the library,\nor perhaps an antagonist? Is the bookcase indeed empty, as Mantis and others\npresume? (I don't see much support for that in the text, except to explain\nwhy \"no one ever goes\" into the room.) Or else what is meant by \"maintain\"?\nIf there are books being saved for him, of what sort are they? ( the lost\narchives evidently have a pretty liberal \"reserve\" policy, at least for\nautarchs <g>).\n(come to think of it, as one of Severian the Great's predecessors, Sulpicius\ndid indeed eventually return to the Library)\n\nI:XI The child Severian once speculated that the mysterious young woman who\nplays Katherine annually at the Feast might be a witch, but by the following\nyear he learned \"such disrespect would not be tolerated.\" What does that\nstatement mean? Who is being dissed here: Holy Katherine, the young woman,\nor the witches?\n\nI:XV when Severian and Dr. Talos first meet in the inn, Talos remarks, upon\nlearning Sev is a torturer, \"You're a tall fellow - that's a shame - ...\".\nWhat did he mean by that? Is there some reason torturers should be short?\n(low ceilings in the oubliette? <g> Or perhaps Talos is already sizing Sev\nup as a possible actor, as Talos is disposed to view everyone he meets in\nterms of their potential immediate usefulness to him and his master)"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0671@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "mark millman",
        "address": "millman at us.ncipher.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-01-04T10:28:45+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Still More Infrequently Asked Questions",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0028-0663@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 9:57 AM 31 December 1999, \"Talarican\" \n<chemmie at mindspring.com> wrote:\nI:XV when Severian and Dr. Talos first meet \nin the inn, Talos remarks, upon learning Sev \nis a torturer, \"You're a tall fellow - that's a \nshame - ...\".  What did he mean by that? Is \nthere some reason torturers should be short?\n(low ceilings in the oubliette? <g> Or per-\nhaps Talos is already sizing Sev up as a possi-\nble actor, as Talos is disposed to view every-\none he meets in terms of their potential im-\nmediate usefulness to him and his master)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\"Tall\" can also mean proud, brave, or handsome,\nas in \"tall ships\" and \"tall in the saddle\".  I suspect\nthat you're right, and Dr. Talos was assessing \nSeverian's usefulness as an actor, but not simply in \nterms of his height.\n\nMark Millman"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}