{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5616", "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": 5616, "subject": "On the allocation of blankets.", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2010-06-02T01:18:14+00:00", "last": "2010-06-02T16:19:51+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Scott Cooper", "address": "sec6 at adelphia.net" }, "date": "2010-06-02T01:18:14+00:00", "subject": "(urth) On the allocation of blankets.", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I've just reread _The Urth of the New Sun_ and wondered:\n\nWhat is Thais about to say, when Pega elbows her to shut her up?\n\nClearly there's some mystery about Thais, possibly concerning her \nidentity.\n\nRecall: Severian's rejoined Odilo, Pega, and Thais abord Eata's \nboat. Odilo's just told the story of his lost love, and Pega's \ntalking to him, in a low voice. For the first time, it seems she's \nnot a total airhead. Severian offers Odilo his blanket, and Thais \nstarts off \"I...\" before Pega \"elbow[s] her so sharply she had to \ncatch her breath.\"\n\nThe blanket thing is clearly a literary contrivance of some sort. Why \ndoes the boat carry exactly N-1 blankets, where N is the number of \npeople aboard?\n\nHere are some hypotheses, because it seems rude to pose a question \nhere without attempting to answer it.\n\n1) Thais is about to offer Severian her blanket because she knows his \nstatus is far higher than the mere hipparch he pretends to be. Pega \ntactfully preserves the fiction of Severian's assumed identity. \n(Unlikely, I think, because Thais shows Severian no deference.)\n\n2) She's about to offer Severian her blanket because of a romantic \nconnection -- perhaps because she's the khaibit of Thea (as proposed \nelsewhere), Thecla, or Valeria. Pega knows she's a khaibit, \nmasquerading as an exultant and does her a favor by preventing her \ncarelessly revealing the secret.\n\n3) She's about to offer to *share* a blanket with Severian, either for \na reason similar to #2, or because she's a loose woman.\n\tIn the latter case, Pega elbows her either a. because she disapproves \nof her promiscuity, or b. because she's competing with her for \nSeverian's attention.)\n\n4) She's about to offer *Odilo* her blanket because he's her father, \nor she's his former girlfriend's daughter, or somesuch. (This is too \nmuch out-of-the-blue to be plausible, unless I've overlooked \nadditional evidence. And why would Pega stop her from doing it?)\n\n5) She's about to give up her blanket because she doesn't need it, not \nbeing human. The obvious alternative to \"human\" would be undine. \n(Unlikely, because it would make one of the four sleeping gods an \nundine; if so, why would Severian later suggest to his priest adding \nJuturna to the pantheon?)\n\n6) She's about to point out that *Severian* doesn't need it because \n*he* isn't human (i.e. like Eata, she considers him an eidolon). \n(Doubtful, for two reasons: First, we've no clue whether she believes \neidolons feel the cold. Second, the first word out of her mouth is \n\"I.\" Of course she could have been about to say \"I think that ...\" \nbut, since Wolfe chooses to give us only the one word, it seems more \nlikely that the word is significant.)\n\n7) She's about to criticise the \"Old Sailor\" for keeping the fourth \nblanket for himself; Pega thinks this would be unjust, or unwise. \n(The sailor saved their lives, and he's the only one who knows how to \nhandle the boat.) The argument against this is that her first word is \n\"I\" (see #6, above).\n\n8) She's about to criticise the sailor for showing favoritism towards \nan old friend, by giving Severian, rather than Odilo, the last \nblanket. Eata, at that point in the narrative, clearly doesn't want \nSeverian to know his identity (or, possibly, doesn't want the others \nto know that Severian knows his). In this case, she must have a \npersonal connection with either Severian or Eata. (Unlikely: The \nclue to the connection would have to lie elsewhere; moreover how \nwould *Pega* know about this, and why would she wish to conceal it? \nIn short, this interpretation leads to a proliferation of speculative \nscenarios weakly, if at all supported by the text.)\n\nThese are not all mutually exclusive. For example, a khaibit might \nalso be promiscuous (some were prostitutes), and, recognizing a \npowerful man incognito, might wish to seduce him." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Lee Berman", "address": "severiansola at hotmail.com" }, "date": "2010-06-02T16:19:51+00:00", "subject": "(urth) On the allocation of blankets.", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "My vague interpretation of that scene is that it relates\nto the secret world of khaibits. My theory is that a \nkhaibit's name is derived from the name of her clone\nmistress, but that it is quite impolite to discuss the \nrelationship openly. Hence, Pega was cloned from mistress\nPelagia and she debates with Odilo whether it is proper to\ncall her role with her mistress as soubrette or ancilla,\n\"khaibit\" being too crass to mention.\n \nPerhaps this explains the mysterious \"half-sister\"\nrelationship between Thecla and Thea? (though Thea is not\nshorter nor subordinate). But if there is a khaibit cloned\nfrom Thea, her name is too short to derive a new (saint)\nname. So perhaps Thea's khaibit was named just that-\n\"Thea's\" (Thais). \t\t \t \t\t " } ] } ] }