{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4693", "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": 4693, "subject": "Appian's Proxy?", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2006-08-20T18:45:43+00:00", "last": "2006-08-21T05:42:47+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "<1156099543.4413.268868377@webmail.messagingengine.com>", "from": { "name": "Rex Lycanthrosaurus", "address": "lycanthrosaurus at fastmail.fm" }, "date": "2006-08-20T18:45:43+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Appian's Proxy?", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Colleagues:\n\nWhen Severian goes to Yesod, he designates his wife Valeria to be his\nproxy, and she is even given the title of Autarchia. Apart from Ymar,\nshe is probably the only person in a thousand years to occupy the\nPhoenix Throne without first taking the alzabo-laden derivative that\ncontains all the memories of the previous autarchs. Or is she? After\nall, the autarch who is Severian's predecessor (and whose name never\nactually appears in either tBotNS or its sequel) also undertakes the\nsame journey. But who is it that rules in his absence? And do we have\nany sense how long the former honey-steward is absent from Urth? Or at\nwhat stage in his own reign he leaves? Severian waits a decade before he\njourneys out and does not return for forty years. But surely his\npredecessor is not gone for a similar amount of time.\n\nI ask this because there's a passage in _Urth_ where Severian writes\n\"...I would now be permitted to reclaim the Phoenix Throne, as I had in\nthe person of my predecessor\" (XXIII, 4th paragraph from the end). But\nwho is Appian reclaiming the throne from? Who has been his acting proxy\nor regent? " }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": " Rex Lycanthrosaurus\n lycanthrosaurus at fastmail.fm\n\n-- \nhttp://www.fastmail.fm - Send your email first class" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "b sharp", "address": "bsharporflat at hotmail.com" }, "date": "2006-08-21T03:27:20+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Appian's Proxy?", "in_reply_to": "<1156099543.4413.268868377@webmail.messagingengine.com>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Regarding Appian, Rex asks:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "who is it that rules in his absence? And do we have any sense how long the \nformer honey->steward is absent from Urth? Or at what stage in his own \nreign he leaves? Severian waits a decade >before he journeys out and does \nnot return for forty years. But surely his predecessor is not gone >for a \nsimilar amount of time." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't think Wolfe intends to be clear on these issues. To even try to \nanswer them I am drawn to the scene where Severian meets Appian in the House \nAbsolute. Severian wants to go to \"the garden\". Appian misunderstands and \nsays, \"I will show you the way to the Garden, though I am by no means sure \nyou will be permitted to enter\". Appian pulls out his mirror book, shows \nTzadkiel to Severian and says, \"Go if you dare\".\n\nThe Garden..hm..more Genesis allusions? Anyway I always took this to mean \nthat Appian used that book to travel to Yesod and take his test. No need \nfor a proxy ruler. He could have been there and back in hours (returned in \naltered form, unfortunately). Anyway, in Urth, Tzadkiel makes it clear \nAppian's test was a boondoggle intended only to help Severian, through \nacquired memory, later. (though I don't see how it did help Severian). So I \nthink there was no need for 10 years of preparation or a long voyage through \nspace for Appian's trip. If someone has to lose his manhood, best it be \ndone quickly as possible, yes?\n\n-bsharp" } ] }, { "message_id": "<005b01c6c4e4$a509ac60$2c3ec6d8@rclackey.stic.net>", "from": { "name": "Roy C. Lackey", "address": "rclackey at stic.net" }, "date": "2006-08-21T05:42:47+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Appian's Proxy?", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Rex Lycanthrosaurus wrote:\nWhen Severian goes to Yesod, he designates his wife Valeria to be his\nproxy, and she is even given the title of Autarchia." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Not so. He left Inire in charge. (URTH, 239, chapter XXXIV, 3rd paragraph)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "all, the autarch who is Severian's predecessor (and whose name never\nactually appears in either tBotNS or its sequel) also undertakes the\nsame journey. But who is it that rules in his absence?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I assume that it was also Inire." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "And do we have\nany sense how long the former honey-steward is absent from Urth? Or at\nwhat stage in his own reign he leaves? Severian waits a decade before he\njourneys out and does not return for forty years. But surely his\npredecessor is not gone for a similar amount of time." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "He need not have been gone any significant amount of time at all, what with\ntime travel involved, and apparently wasn't. He evidently went to Yesod\nshortly before Severian was born. See CITADEL, chapter XXIV, about three\npages in. Sev was gone from Urth for forty years only because the\nHierogrammates deliberately returned him to Typhon's era to establish the\nConciliator legend. That, and the fact that Sev wasn't very adept at using\nthe Corridors of Time.\n\n-Roy" } ] } ] }