{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3604",
    "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": 3604,
    "subject": "exhaustion of the feminine",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2002-11-25T14:21:50+00:00",
    "last": "2002-11-25T14:21:50+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0211-2228@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "maa32",
        "address": "maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu"
      },
      "date": "2002-11-25T14:21:50+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) exhaustion of the feminine",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In a previous post, Don asserted that he sees little need for Dorcas to be a \nfamilial relation of Severian's.  I argue that it is imperative that she be a \nmember of his line:  her love is a distorted version of motherly love that is \nthe most redeeming love in the text outside of divinity.\n\nI argue that, as Gene Wolfe has stated, in some small part the story of \nSeverian is the story of a man looking for love.  I think that Wolfe is a \ncareful enough writer to show that these females (whatever you think of them) \nare symbolic of something other than themselves.  In the text, first you have \nan ideal of beauty that you covet (Thea), then you have the prostitute - the \neasiest form of \"love\" for a young boy to get with a little cash - that \nmirrors a desire (that mirrors another desire).\n\nThen you have a wiser, older mentor (Thecla).  Then the femme fetale in the \nform of Agia - conniving, plain outside and ugly inside - then you have the \nmost redeeming love of the text - one that must be explored in the same sexual \nmetaphor that Wolfe uses to explore all the others - the most versatile form \nof love (note the changing flowers in dorcas' hair - she is the only one who \ncan change her flowers if we associate Thecla with the death lillies and Agia \nwith the Avern) - that of the mother figure.  It is a tension between sexual \ndesire and the need to be protected from the external environment - and notice \nhow Dorcas changes Sev's perceptions of the outside world by having him feel \nher up, presenting him with the archetypal symbol of safety - the breast.  \nThat's pretty motherly.  Then we have false vanity, teasing, and uppitiness \n(Jolenta).  Later we get an exploration of adultery (Cyriaca), then an \nexploration of slavery/ bondage in the form of Pia, and perhaps one of buggery \nwith little Sev. (but probably not)  Finally this culminates in frigid, banal \nmarriage with a haughty wench that leaves everybody feeling bad, so one might \nas well go to the stars to be castrated.\n\nIn many ways, the text is an exhaustion of the possibilities of happiness \nthrough either feminine spirituality or sexuality (you've noticed all those \nevil feminine goddesses and cults lurking in the text, Don). Love, to a young \nman, might seem to be best embodied by someone in the image of his mother, but \neven that should be shunned for something a bit more redemptive and spiritual, \nas Severian ultimately does.  I think Dorcas needs to be maternal, and \nSeverian's symbolic incest is not contrary to Wolfe's intentions, for the \nthematic consistency of the book relies on all of these various roles offering \nnothing but a vacuous relief from lust and desire in the form of a grasping, \nnew hatched chick hungry to devour the world.  (At least, I think so).\n\nMarc Aramini"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}