{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/264",
    "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": 264,
    "subject": "The play's the thing",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-11-23T13:35:57+00:00",
    "last": "1997-11-23T13:35:57+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0005-0401@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-11-23T13:35:57+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The play's the thing",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Here’s my take on Dr. Talos’s play:\n\nI think it clearly parallels the only other pageant in the series, that in\nUrth (V), where the aquastors gather before Tzadkiel (who represents the\nIncreate) to speak for and against Severian. In the play, the\nrepresentatives of those who live on Urth gather before the Autarch, who\nrepresents the Increate, to debate the coming of the New Sun. (Note that the\nAutarch makes it clear that, even as an actor, he is –not- the Increate, he\nis merely standing in for him as the owner of the garden.)\n\nMeschia and Meschiane represent mankind. The Contessa represents us—that\nsmall segment of first-world mankind that owns computers and reads books—as\nwell as the exultant class. Small roles are given to the military, to a\nreligious/philosopher type, to a servant, a judge, even to a torturer. Thus\nvirtually everyone we meet in the book is seen in the play.\n\nGabriel represents the angels, and, as has been pointed out, more angelic\nbeings are to appear in the unfinished portion of the play. Jahi represents\nthe demon world—I think it extremely decent of Dr. Talos to give demons a\nsay—and thus not only Shaitan, Ahriman, Erebus, Abaia, the Aschians etc.,\nbut, as mantis says, Agia. Two demons disguised as merchants also appear,\nand it would seem that there might be a debate with the angelic beings to\ncome, though how this would be staged is hard to say, since I believe they\nare played by the women.\n\nBaldanders’s  roles are downright fascinating. As Nod, he represents the\nelementals, the children of Urth, not only the Nephilim, Titans, Jontun,\nogres, giants, trolls, creatures in the cave, Gayomart, Enkidu, etc, but\nalso the dumb beasts who cannot speak for themselves. As the Statue, he\nstands for androids, demi-humans and the cacogens, but also, I think, for\nruins, monuments, the nobler detritus of mankind. It’s possible that he,\nrather than Dr. T, will play the Old Sun in the last act, yet he is crucial\nto the development of Ushas, or so I think.\n\nThe time is out of time, a magical midnight between the end of the Old Sun\nand the start of the New. The destruction which we witness in V is\npredicted. The actors know what their roles were in ages past, but they\ncannot say for sure what their new roles will be. Note that there will be a\nmirror in V, when Odilo, Pega and Thetis take on Meschia, Meschiane and\nJahi.\n\nOver to you.\n\n-alga-"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}