{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4634",
    "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": 4634,
    "subject": "Countess Carina",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2006-05-29T19:01:25+00:00",
    "last": "2006-05-29T19:01:25+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<BAY103-F9064B54517F89692F337DD79D0@phx.gbl>",
      "from": {
        "name": "b sharp",
        "address": "bsharporflat at hotmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2006-05-29T19:01:25+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Countess Carina",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "When Severian appears in Dr. Talos' play, it is interupted by a tableau \nwhich Talos uses to squeeze the audience for money.  He calls special \nattention to certain scenes, telling the audience, \"Remember that you have \nnever as yet learned the identity of the mysterious figure seen by the \nContessa through the curtained windows\".  We later learn in UotNS that the \nmysterious figure is Severian.  But the Contessa Carina remains mysterious.\n\nUsing Rules of Names 1 and 2a. can provide some clues.\n\nRule 1. There does not appear to be a Saint Carina in the lists.  However \nCarina is a constellation and the name of the ship Argo's keel.  This might \nsuggest her character is a non-human.  Both she and the she-demon Jahi are \nplayed by Jolenta.  Jahi's lip is split by Meschianne.  The Contessa is \nsmacked by Meschia.   Later the Contessa is escorted along the Road Of Air \nto recover from some minor injury.  Both Jahi and the Contessa are trying to \nbecome impregnated by Meschia on the last day of Urth.\n\nIn the similar scene in UotNS there are some suggestions that the crying \nwoman Severian escorted on the Path of Air is his mother Catherine.  Since \nthe Path of Air might be a time travelling path back to the time of \nSeverian's youth this could make sense.  But Rule 2a. suggests that the name \nCarina (instead of being a Scandinavian alternate of Catherine) might denote \na kaibit of Catherine.\n\nMuch of the speculation that time stands still in the Atrium of Time \n(despite the changing of seasons there) is connected to the idea that \nCatherine's appearance never seems to change for roughly 15 years.  But if \nshe has a kaibit, an alternate explanation for her eternal youth is \npresented which meshes better with the rest of the characters in the book \nwho retain youth.\n\n-bsharp"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}