{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/597",
    "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": 597,
    "subject": "Hethor's mirrors",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 3,
    "first": "1998-05-12T08:35:16+00:00",
    "last": "1998-07-02T18:29:47+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0010-0148@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-12T08:35:16+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Hethor's mirrors",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Well, I'm not going to touch most of that mantic limbic conjecture, but I\nwill note that Hethor does indeed have a set of mirrors by which he\nmanipulates his beasties--Father Inire alludes to them in his letter to Sev\nnear the end of Citadel. How he transports them, I wouldn't know.\n\n-alga-"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0010-0152@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.geis.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-12T13:57:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Hethor's mirrors",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0010-0148@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "alga,\n\nRight, Hethor's mirrors aluded to by Father Inire.  But since the\nonly mirrors we see (mainly the \"transporter pad\" of the Presence\nChamber: about which Domnia told Thecla as Severian tells Agia [I,\nch. 20]; into which Jonas steps [II, ch. 18]; and into which the\ncat is thrown into [\"The Cat\"]) are part of a room sized installation\n(eight full length mirrors, with \"labyrinths\" aka teratoid signs on\ntheir backs; some sort of laser-like light source at the center of\nthe mirror octagon), and since Hethor does not seem to be carrying\nas much as a knapsack, then Hethor's mirrors must somehow be, kit\nand kaboodle, pocket sized.\n\nAbout summoning mirror critters: it seems that Chinese \"magic\nmirrors\" are mirrors that seem normal but they reflect/project a\nspecific image, e.g., you can look at your face, but catch the\nsunlight and you project the written character for \"fire\" into the\nshadows.  The mirror silvering is only partial.\n\nFather Inire tells Domnia that the Fish will materialize if they\ndon't darken the lamp or adjust the mirrors.  Suggesting that there\nis a physical action rather than a psychic action: one dials up the\ncritter code on the mirrors rather than thinking strong thoughts of\ninfluence.  But maybe not--Inire also seems to suggest that the Fish\nis one of the first shapes to materialize; so there might be limits\nto what a novice can catch with the mirrors, and only a real\nfisherman can haul in the wild and very big creatures as Hethor does.\n\nSo Hethor, staring into his pocket compact, draws forth a half dozen\nflying mounts for Vodalus?  Yikes!\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0015-0071@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "mary whalen",
        "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-07-02T18:29:47+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Hethor's mirrors",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0010-0152@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nA while ago I think there was some question about how big Hethor's\nmirrors would have to be for him to get all those creatures through\nthem.  It's possible that all the creatures had a small original form\nor that they can fold their bodies enough to make it through.  That\nwould take care of how Hethor could carry small mirrors around with\nhim that bring out large beings.\n\nHowever, the mirrors (that's what they're always called in the story,\nso I'll assume he has more than one) could summon large beings\nwithought being large at all. With three small handmirrors arranged on\nthe ground in a triangle with each bent back at an angle, in the area\nwhere light from the three combine, a fairly large creature could\nappear.  Remember how Jonas never goes through the Inire's mirrors, he\njust stands between them at the point of confluence and is sent away.\n\nprion"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}