{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/201",
    "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": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 201,
    "subject": "Severian, the God",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-04-13T15:11:20+00:00",
    "last": "1997-04-13T15:11:20+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0004-0048@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-04-13T15:11:20+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Severian, the God",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Ranjit, sorry about this, but the urth list is coming in rather strangely\n(it seems to refer back to sender instead of to the listserv):\n\nTalon:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "\tI see Severian as a mere mortal that has put on immortality, and \nother supernatural characteristics, through the workings of the \nIncreate/Pancreator, not through any innate qualities he may possess. His"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "elevated station is the result of divine intervention. He is the \nIncreate's chosen instrument, just as Silk is the Outsider's. (I had to \nwork in some Whorl content for Ranjit)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I'm going to go out on a limb here (who, me?) and suggest that yes,\nSeverian starts as a mortal, but as a mortal observed (the undine). With\neach successive \"death,\" starting with the avernus, he becomes more of a\ndemi-god, like Hercules or Gilgamesh. The moment when he becomes a god\n(here's the limb) is the moment of orgasm with Apheta when the New Sun is\nformed.\n\nThat said, I reiterate that he is no way increate. He is transformed by\napotheosis, and the sexual moment of the transformation refers nicely back\nto the Gnostic concept of our Earth having been malformed by having been\nconceived asexually (by Sophia, for whom Apheta can stand in), whereas a\ntrue world, an Ushas is a joint effort.\n\nAnd no, of course I don't think Gene Wolfe is a Gnostic. I think he is a\nGnovelist.\n\nAnd I think Severian is the Outsider.\n\n-alga-"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}