{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/355",
    "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": 355,
    "subject": "The Rats in the Walls, etc.",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-02-06T14:24:41+00:00",
    "last": "1998-02-06T14:24:41+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0007-0528@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David_Lebling",
        "address": "david_lebling at avid.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-02-06T14:24:41+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Rats in the Walls, etc.",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "alga, re South America:\n\nWhile you are absolutely right that TBOTNS's South America isn't ours, I\nthink it's safe to say it fills the role of South America on Urth. \nRecall that while Severian's universe isn't necessarily (maybe even\ncertainly) ours, it is also stated that each successive universe\nresembles all the others, even down to minor details.\n\nRats: I guess I'm a literalist, but I think the rats in the library do\nhave writing in the same sense that humans do.  What better place for\nthem to learn and practice the art, after all?  There's a touch of\nLeiber's Lankhmar in Nessus, I think; and recall the rat civilization\nunder that dark city!\n\nJoshua Solomon, re rivers:\n\nI know the Rio de la Plata runs more or less southeast. Its north bank\ntributaries may run into it in a southwesterly direction. I think in\ngeneral rivers in Argentina run southeast or east. Rivers in Chile run\nwesterly, but are pretty short as a rule. The Gyoll is a wide deep river\nthat cuts deeply into its continent west and south of high mountains:\nit's the mirror image of the Rio de la Plata.\n\nmantis,\n\nI found an interesting reference about carving the mountains, in _Urth_.\nWhen Severian is taken to Mount Typhon, he states in so many words that\nhe's never before seen an uncarved mountain, and Typhon's is the only\ncarved one at that time.  He also states that the _autarchs_ who\nsucceeded Typhon carved others in imitation of Typhon's.  At that point\nin his life, he's in a position to know.\n\nAlso, someone asked about the name Legion. It's biblical, isn't it? From\nthe story of Jesus casting the demons from a man into a herd of swine.\nWeren't those demons called Legion?  It has become a semi-synonym for \"a\nwhole big bunch.\"  I suppose it's possible the biblical reference is\nrelated to the Roman military unit, as well.  If you call yourself\nLegion, it means \"I have too many names to mention, enough for a whole\nLegion of troops.\""
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}