{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/547", "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": 547, "subject": "Fav lines", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1998-05-02T17:14:43+00:00", "last": "1998-05-02T22:09:00+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "J. Schultz", "address": "jschultz at wcnet.org" }, "date": "1998-05-02T17:14:43+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Fav lines", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Sorry about the Html format, I didn't know any better. Problem solved.\n\nI suddenly realized one of the great problems in determining the answers to\nso many riddles. Severian's reaction to said mysteries is usually one of\ncomplete indifference. We will never know if Severian thinks that the\nconstellation of the Swan is of Urth's or not. Even when faced with the\nbizare, terrible, or strange Severian merely takes it in stride and moves\non. There are times when he understands less than the reader and other\ntimes where we are surprised at the revelations he has just spoken to us.\n(I love it)\n\nAlong this train of thought, some of my favorite lines come from Wolfe's use\nof irony and scenes where Severian misunderstands what the reader has\ngrasped. The lines in question come from Severian's childhood at the\nMatachin Tower.\n\nWhen Severian is in the Atrium of Time, Valaria is trying to comfort S over\nthe loss of his dog and says: \"...he too may have found hospitality. You\nlove him, so another may love him. You love him, so you may love another.\"\nBeautiful! ...and Severian's answer? \"I agreed, but secretly thought that\nI would never have another dog.\" Ha!\n\nSeverian also seems to misunderstand the nature of Katherine during his\nelevation. She most certainly is an automaton who is brought out once a\nyear to play her part and then returned to her box at the end of the feast.\nYet S comes up with elaborate reasoning and trickery that would explain the\nbeheading. In his naivetee S has tried to explain what he has seen yet\nfalls way short of the mark. The answer is much simpler, yet much stranger\nthat S has imagined. There are many other times when S may be doing the\nexact same thing.\n\nNow a question and an answer:\nWhy is Agilus wearing a death mask when Sev first sees him in the rag shop?\n\nAs a side note: I read the archives and someone wondered what the\ndisturbance was at the gate of Nessus toward the end of book one. I don't\nthink its a coincidence that the chapter is named Hethor and he makes his\nfirst appearence. My theory is that he has loosed some sort of creature\nthat is causing quite a commotion.\n\n\nFunkMonkey" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.geis.com" }, "date": "1998-05-02T22:09:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) re: Fav lines", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "FunkMonkey,\n\nThat is a good sequence between Valeria and Severian, and yes, it is\ntrue that the knowledge gap shifts between Severian and the reader.\nOne of Hethor's critters at the gate is one of the more likely\nexplanations (though it still seems ominously silent that nobody even\nsays, \"What the hell happened at the gate back there?\" To which the\nother character could say, \"Who knows, some kind of commotion.\" Just\nto acknowledge that hey, one doesn't always see a seven car pile up\non the interstate highway). Still, if so, we wonder which one? The\nslug was used a couple times (slimed Jonas in the antechamber). When\nthings get =that= quiet in a Wolfe story it usually means something\nvery important.\n\nI've never heard the notion that the maid who performs the role of\nHoly K on the feast days of the torturers is a machine. Personally\nI'm resistant to the idea, since I belive that the \"maid\" in question\nis the same dark haired lass named Catherine beloved by Ouen (son of\nDorcas) so long ago, the disgraced monial who gave birth to twins in\nthe Matachin Tower. (This Catherine was a Pelerine, and as such she\nwas probably exultant or a released khaibit of an exultant.)\n\nRe: Agilus wearing a death mask. Part of the bait and switch tactic;\nthrowing the customer off-balance with a loud neck tie; jokingly\nresponding in kind to what the A/A twins thought was an armiger in\ngrim costume; buying time for Agia's quick change from \"bait\" to\n\"soldier.\" Stuff like that. Those cunning A/A twins.\n\n=mantis=" } ] } ] }