{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5673",
    "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": 5673,
    "subject": "Wolfe Forum open and ready for members",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2010-07-22T13:23:13+00:00",
    "last": "2010-07-23T18:44:18+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<AANLkTikMgZ-6WPhb6pRxNjIQoNhlLYYkXcuoVDsSBiNo@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "aaron",
        "address": "aaronsingleton at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2010-07-22T13:23:13+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Wolfe Forum open and ready for members",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Since John Klima's Wolfe forum seems to be done for, I decided to revamp my\nown Wolfe board and try it one more time.  Anyone who was a member of the\nSolar Cycle Book Club (as I was) is welcome as is everyone else who wishes\nto visit.  The address is http://usefulphrases.yuku.com/\n\nI hope we can make this one work for a long time to come."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Aaron Singleton"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<4C49E302.5040302@verizon.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David Stockhoff",
        "address": "dstockhoff at verizon.net"
      },
      "date": "2010-07-23T18:44:18+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Wall again, or It's Big but Not So Dumb",
      "in_reply_to": "<AANLkTikMgZ-6WPhb6pRxNjIQoNhlLYYkXcuoVDsSBiNo@mail.gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Another reason for the existence of the Wall occurred to me. (Never mind \nthat the fact that the Ascian war used to be farther south is itself \nsufficient reason, since overwhelming aerial and space attacks were \nalways bound to be unlikely anywhere, and the Citadel has long-range \nguns.) This one is thematic. It's not a huge deal, but it should be \nnoted for what it's worth.\n\nI have a hunch that the rough circularity of the Wall and Severian's \npassing through it are, if not symbolic, at least a formal \norganizational scheme that points to the \"true history\" laid out in the \nevents of UotNS.\n\nThat is, it is significant that Shadow narrates a radial physical path \nfrom a center (not necessarily the physical center) straight to a point \non the edge, ignoring absolutely everything that may lie to either side. \nIt ends with a passage across a boundary. Severian describes Shadow as a \nroad from gate to gate (necropolis to Wall), and to a new road. This \ntheme continues:\n\nClaw is described as tracing a line from gateway to gateway---from \nSaltus to the stone town, which was a different kind of gate, a gate to \nthe past and other dimensions.\n\nSword is described as tracing a line from fortress to fortress ---from \nThrax to Diuturna. A fortress may be a kind of gate if it guards a pass \nor road. A closed gate may need forcing.\n\nCitadel is described as completing a line from gate to gate---from \nnecropolis to sky. But of course it starts in the North at the frontier \nand ends back at the Citadel, which, again, is a center in more than one \nway. So it repeats and reverses the journey from center to periphery, as \nwell as containing smaller circles; the Citadel itself is a circle, with \na breach in it.\n\nTo some degree, these convenient divisions are obvious and superficial. \nThere are plenty of other divisions in Severian's life, as for example \nwhen he moves from body to body, or when he betrays. But some of these \nnever become plain until UotNS, and therefore I suspect that this \nrepeated geometric structure, however simple, is part of Wolfe's \"open \nconspiracy\" of clues.\n\nMuch as a center suggests a periphery---the simplest form being a \ncircle---a circle suggests a center as well as other circles. One circle \nis Nessus; another is the Commonwealth, and another is Urth. There other \nworlds in their orbits. Another is the universe, and there are other \nuniverses and universal \"years,\" as has been discussed thoroughly on \nthis forum. Severian's path is suspected to be circular in time, and we \nknow he moves through past and future. If you think as I do that the \nblack worm and the New Sun are two sides of the same phenomenon (from a \nsupradimensional perspective), then this supports that idea.\n\nYesod is another center---or another circle suggesting yet another \ncenter. The House Absolute is another kind of center that suggests \nanother kind of circle---a center hidden in plain sight. Are there \ncircles hidden in plain sight? Other centers?"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}