{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/964", "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": 964, "subject": "\"a score of years, like dogs.\"", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1998-07-11T13:17:59+00:00", "last": "1998-07-11T13:17:59+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Charles Dye", "address": "raster at highfiber.com" }, "date": "1998-07-11T13:17:59+00:00", "subject": "(urth) \"a score of years, like dogs.\"", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "m.driussi at genie.com (mantis) writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "The quote raster mentions (ch. 34 in URTH) has a context: Severian\nstill thinks he has returned to his era (he doesn't guess he is in\nTyphon's); he has a sense of failure (since the white fountain cannot\narrive to his era in time); and he is wondering about this \"Monarch\"\npeople are talking about, thinking that Inire wouldn't do such a\nthing. (In a real sense, a presentiment of what he will find when he\ngets closer to home-time.) (We will skip over all possible excuses,\nlike: Severian, hearing a masculine title \"Monarch,\" envisions the\nfirst =male= candidate of succession, Inire, rather than the first\ncandidate, Valeria.)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I think he's aware that he's Billy Pilgrimmed. He just doesn't have\nany idea how far. Certainly the planet isn't the way he left it." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Of course I may be over-reading raster (throw me a bone!), but the\nsuggestion is (I believe):\n\n Severian's Reign from 1 S.R. to 10 S.R.\n\n Inire's Regency from 10 S.R. to — S.R.\n\n Valeria's \"pseudo-autarchy\" from — S.R. to 50 S.R.\n\n Severian returns 50 S.R." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Oh, I'm nowhere near that precise :-) But yes, I think Inire was\nleft at the wheel; then at some point, Valeria found a reason to take\nover. Perhaps Inire died. Or perhaps her remarriage made a new\nAutarch look plausible. Or maybe just because Sev has been gone\nso long -- as you point out, this is expected to be a short trip,\nmaking a regency reasonable." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": " [Snip Oddyseus. Though I'm sure you hit a homer there.]\n\nWith that out of the way--Inire as regent: what a dumb idea! Poor\nlittle wry-neck Inire, ancient and twisted! They only live a score\nof years! (That's 20, for you ultramoderns--so Inire is what, 19 or\n21 already?) Serving autarchs since Ymar, skipping through the\ncorridors of time! All reinforcing the notion that the trip to Yesod\nwas thought to take less than a year." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Honestly, I don't think it's such a dumb idea. You're suggesting that\nInire pops in on each Autarch's reign for a month or two (A day or two?\nHow many Autarchs?) to render pithy advice. Oh, it's possible, I\nsuppose, but it just doesn't feel right to me. Judging by his first\nletter to Severian, I see an individual who is deeply immersed in\nthe day-to-day politics of the Commonwealth and the war with Ascia.\nHe was present in the previous Autarch's reign long enough to gain\na devoted servant in Rudesind, long enough that Thecla couldn't be\ncertain that he wasn't actually pulling the strings. He has his own\npersonal suite of apartments, rather than being assigned a room in the\nBOQ. If my guess is right, Inire has more experience running an empire\nthan any human being.\n\nHere are a few not-so-random quotes:\n\n\"... old Father Inire, alive so long beyond the span of his short-\nlived kind ....\" -- Severian, IV-38\n\n\"Growth has its disadvantages, though for your species it is the\nonly method by which youth can be reinstated.\" -- Ossipago, III-34\n(Note the qualification!)\n\n\"She cannot. She is very old, but this city was devastated whole\nages before she came to be.\" -- Merryn, of the Cumeaen (who in\nturn finds an older friend!) II-31\n\nAlso, Severian says that he's certain the Hierodules come in different\ncolors and flavors. Can't find the reference, but I'm sure someone else\nwill remember where it is.\n\n * * *\n * * *\n\nNow for some wild speculation. Imagine you're a scientist, a\nbiologist with a very rational and materialistic viewpoint. You are\nvisited at infrequent intervals by mysterious colleagues who obviously\nknow far more than they tell. You have a special interest in youth\nand the process of aging -- it's your life work! -- and you slowly\ncome to the uncomfortable realization that your guests are getting\nyounger with each visit. They also have an odd habit of forgetting\nconversations, details of their previous visits. How do you explain\nthis?\n\nOf course, your \"friends\" must represent successive generations in a\nsingle family. (Whoa, deja vu.) From the intervals between visits,\nyou can figure the length of a generation; and from there, it's easy\nenough to estimate lifespans. In short: Baldanders' statement of\nthe Hierodule lifetime may be based on a wildly faulty assumption." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "IF Valeria's reign is from 10 S.R. to 50 S.R., then the argument\nboils down to simply the use of the term \"regency\" (as committed by\nFeeley and myself) rather than some more-accurate-but-not-yet-\nspecified word." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't think Wolfe uses the word, but I like it anyway. I get the\nimpression that Severian has left Inire at the helm; and the faint\nmadness-of-the-monarch resonance fits in too. Why Inire rather than\nValeria? First, he has had umpteen centuries experience in the\nmanagement of the Commonwealth. Second, while Valeria has the\nbloodline, that doesn't necessarily make her a leader. She seems\npretty peevish in \"Urth,\" though I guess that's understandable. What\nwith the world ending and all.\n\nFinally, Valeria is queen (ahem, autarchia) only by dint of being\nmarried to Severian. She doesn't rule \"in her own right.\" She\ncan't succeed to the Autarchy legally. Come to think of it, noone\ncan truly claim the throne while Severian is alive. Or if his\nbody is lost at sea. I think the Commonwealth is forced into an\nindefinite regency until the New Sun comes!\n\nraster at highfiber.com" } ] } ] }