{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/564",
    "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": 564,
    "subject": "Palaemon isn't Polonius; Memory; The Wall",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-05-06T09:27:26+00:00",
    "last": "1998-05-06T09:27:26+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0010-0096@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David_Lebling",
        "address": "david_lebling at avid.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-06T09:27:26+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Palaemon isn't Polonius; Memory; The Wall",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>\nIncidentally, Palaemon's behavior and words when he sends Severian on\nhis way are very odd.  First he claims that Thrax is by the sea.  Then\nhe tells Severian to pay attention to his good advice but remarks that\nSeverian would probably forget it all.  Palaemon, who we are told\nelsewhere was fond of Severian for his perfect memory."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I don't have a good explanation for why he first thinks Thrax is by the\nsea, but I think I can nail the other.  Palaemon probably knows Severian\nas well as anyone, and has figured out (as we eventually do) that while\nhe has an exceptional memory, he doesn't have terribly awesome\nanalytical faculties.  Again and again we see him _missing the point_,\nso Palaemon realizes that Severian won't get it, regardless of what he\nsays, but he won't insult Severian by saying so."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Severian's memory of Thecla:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "But Severian1 presumably had the total recall.  And besides, Severian\ndoes eventually get the picture that he doesn't need the claw to do\nwhat he does."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "We've been around and around on this issue before; I'm in the camp that\nbelieves there was something different about Severian's memories of\nThecla. Somewhere (where?) he states that the Claw brought her to life\nin his mind, and somewhere else it is stated that the analeptic alzabo's\nmemory effects don't last (this may be when the Old Autarch is\nexplaining _his_ potion in Book IV). Severian's total recall isn't\nenough."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "BTW, there's at least one passage that suggests that the first\nSeverian may not have even been a torturer:\n\nBook IV, Ch. 36:\n\"He too was reared by the torturers, I think.\""
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "This refers back to the scene where the masters ask Severian if he\nwishes to become a journeyman. They want him to understand that if he\nquits before becoming a journeyman, people who meet him will say \"He was\nreared by the torturers,\" but if he accepts elevation and then quits,\npeople will say \"He was a torturer.\"  Perhaps Severian means that both\nhe and Sev1 left the guild?\n\nFunkMonkey Theory Two (Hethor as Interstellar Most-Wanted):"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Dr. Talos on the creatures inside the wall:  \"I do not doubt that\nthere are among them many who search fo some particular miscreant,\nand that if they were to see the one they seek, they would sally out\nand lay hold of him.\"\nHethor, as noted by Sev., is hanging his head."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I think this is half the explanation.  Hethor is worried that he will be\nseen and captured, so he releases one of his little pets to create a\ndiversion. However, if a cacogen or two had come out after him, that\nprobably would have had an equivalent effect on the crowd, so you may be\nright.\n\n    --viz\n    (david_lebling at avid.com)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}