{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/78",
    "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": 78,
    "subject": "Agilus' mask",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 3,
    "first": "1997-07-01T13:23:35+00:00",
    "last": "1997-07-02T14:00:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0002-0129@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Ranjit Bhatnagar",
        "address": "ranjit at best.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-07-01T13:23:35+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Agilus' mask",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Apropos of nothing, how come the ribbon still showed after\nAgilus took off his mask?\n\n\t-r.\n\tstrange thoughts that occur on the bus to work"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0002-0132@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Joshua A. Solomon",
        "address": "j.solomon at ucl.ac.uk"
      },
      "date": "1997-07-02T10:38:24+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Agilus' mask",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0002-0129@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Ranjit Bhatnagar wrote:\n\nApropos of nothing, how come the ribbon still showed after\nAgilus took off his mask?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I always assumed it's because he had another mask on underneath.\n\nbee"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0002-0133@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-07-02T14:00:00+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Agilus' mask",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0002-0132@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Reply:  Item #1388846 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#\n\nbee and r.,\n\nThe line in question: \"The ribbons that held your mask,\" I said.\n\"They're still there.\"\n\nWe are taking this as literal.  But it can also be Severian's laconic\nway of saying, \"Look, you are still play-acting as though I were not\nthe simple torturer that I am.\"  (Agilus is acting, but he doesn't\nreally grasp that Severian is a genuine torturer--Agilus assumes\nSeverian to be an armiger or armiger-wannabe in costume for a party.)\n\nAnd it can be metaphorical, saying that Agilus's real face is as much\nanother mask as Doctor Talos's face is that of a stuffed fox.\n\nBut it cannot be literally true that Agilus is wearing a second\nmask--since the face Severian sees looks like Agia and the face he\nwill later see when Agilus is a prisoner in the cell.  Or if Agilus is\nwearing a second mask, it is unusual in that it looks exactly like his\nface, which leads back into the laconic and metaphorical readings.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}