Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v002.n012

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 22:34:45 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Sarcos (that's a Vironese name?---as if!)

> > Agia's casual reference to the Theoanthropos (the only such reference
in
> > the quintet) is equivalent to one of us saying "Jumping Jehosaphat!"
> 
> Bwah ha ha ha! Yer kidding rite? "casual" references? mentioned "only"
> once? That's supposed to mean it isn't important or significant? This is
> *Wolfe*, you algid hearted pond-scum! ( :-) )
> 
> We only say Jehoshephat because there was someone of that name. How does
> Agia know of any theoanthropos?

Well, I'm presuming she can read. And if she can't read, there are stories,
an oral tradition. How do we know of Hercules or Hecuba?

And the subject originally related to whether Severian is a Christian. Care
to offer your proof that he is? Suckah?

-pondscum-

---

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 23:03:08 +0000

I put that badly. The point really is that one can say "Jumping
Jehosaphat!" without having the foggiest idea of who (or what) Jehosaphat
was, simply because it's ingrained in tradition, like saying "Geshundeit!"
when someone sneezes, whether or not you believe in demons. Agia makes a
casual, throwaway reference. The reference is not picked up as significant
by Severian, nor is it a plot point anywhere else in the quintet. I take it
that there is a traditional story of such a character, perhaps in the Brown
Book, but certainly somewhere in the long rich half-forgotten history of
Urth. And since my own position is that Severian himself is a form of that
character, then, yes, indeed there is significance in Agia's throwaway
line. 

-alga-