{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2321",
    "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": 2321,
    "subject": "Let me shoulder your burden, brother.",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-07-26T14:13:20+00:00",
    "last": "2000-07-26T14:13:20+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0029-0122@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Tony Ellis",
        "address": "tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "2000-07-26T14:13:20+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Let me shoulder your burden, brother.",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "corncrake wrote:\nWhen I pointed out that Severian's meeting with the lochage earlier in\nShadow was a little like Christ\nbefore Pilate, someone --- I think Tony Ellis --- quite rightly made\nthe same objection."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Yes, that was me. Sorry. But I think you have a much stronger case with\nHethor re-echoing Simon of Cyrene’s charitable offer, and top marks for\nspotting this. (Am I the only one, by the way, who can never think of\nthis beautiful and life-affirming Bible episode without thinking of the\nbit in Life of Brian where the Saintly Passer By shoulders a\ncrucifixee’s burden and the crucifixee promptly runs like hell?)\n\nIt’s just struck me that the interview between Severian and the Archon\nis as good a candidate for a parallel of the interview between Jesus and\nPilate as his meeting with the Lochage. After all, Abdiesus is a local\ngovernor, as Pilate was, and he has the same air of the educated,\nheartily-sick-of-the-provinces time server. But I think this just\nillustrates how easy it is to find parallels between the Gospels and\nTBOTNS."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "In particular, I have racked my brains for any explanation of the doll\nhe had in his cabin, as described in\nhis first monologue in chapter XXX, `Night', though the nature of her\n`lemon-wood box' is perhaps\nworth consideration. (Why lemon-wood, anyone?)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "She’s a paracoita. A sex droid. Surely the perfect companion for the\nlonely sailor, far from shore? Lemon-wood because it smells sweet, I\nwould think. In the ancient world there was a big market for rare,\npleasant-smelling woods.\n\nTotally off topic: The sad story of the Essex is indeed fascinating,\nespecially to an Essex boy such as myself. I recommend the chapter on\n“The Wreck of the Medusa” in Julian Barnes’ “A History of the World in\n10 ½ Chapters” as another compelling account of shipwreck and\ncannibalism at sea - as well as one of the best accounts of the creation\nof a work of art that I’ve ever read.\n\nSlightly more on topic: one of the conceits in Barnes' novel is the idea\nof history repeating itself, but as a whimper rather than a bang. (The\nimage he uses, as I recall, is the way a belch faintly brings back the\ntaste of the hotdog you had earlier in the day.) This certainly chimes\nwith the idea of Hethor standing in for Simon of Cyrene, and indeed with\nthe idea of Severian standing in for Christ."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Tony Ellis\nOn-line Editor, PC Format magazine\n01225 442244 x2349\nhttp://www.pcformat.co.uk"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}