{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/212", "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": 212, "subject": "Orchid's Manteion", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1997-03-15T04:00:00+00:00", "last": "1997-03-16T15:34:01+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-03-15T04:00:00+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Orchid's Manteion", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #5705130 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET02#\n\nTercel,\n\nI think I agree with you, since I've been working on the idea that\nOrchid's \"profaned\" manteion is actually not so very profaned--that\nit was and is a manteion dedicated to Kypris-the-party-girl, or, as\nyou put it (bringing Chicago geography into the picture) the \"Playboy\nManteion.\" (The profanity involved, making bawdy fun of the\nimperious ruler, makes perfect sense for a saturnalia, or \"satyrnalia\"\nif you prefer.) This has echoes with mytho-historical practices--Love\nGoddess temple prostitutes in the ancient Middle East; societies where\na girl earned her own dowry by serving as a temple prostitute; and\nstuff like that.\n\nAn argument agin' it: the manteions we see are not so specialized,\nrather they serve all the gods. Shrines, yes (specialized); manteions,\nno. Then again, it is an interesting notion and it sure answers \"Why\ndid Kypris show up there?\" in a big way! (It is =her= temple where\nher favored rites are still being practiced, feeding whatever psionic\ngodfood into her divine person--via patented Wilhelm Reich Orgon\ncollecters, no doubt . As opposed to the Moloch crowd--they've\nbeen on a diet.)\n\n(Hey, wait a second--did you title yours \"Thought for the day\"\nbecause today is =Friday=? Very clever!)\n\n=mantis=\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Derek Bell", "address": "dbell at maths.tcd.ie" }, "date": "1997-03-16T15:34:01+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Orchid's Manteion", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "In message <199703150509.VAA08876 at lists1.best.com>, m.driussi at genie.com writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Tercel,\n\nI think I agree with you, since I've been working on the idea that\nOrchid's \"profaned\" manteion is actually not so very profaned--that\nit was and is a manteion dedicated to Kypris-the-party-girl, or, as\nyou put it (bringing Chicago geography into the picture) the \"Playboy\nManteion.\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tReally, I didn't know that the Playboy Mansion was near\nChicago! Come to think of it, it makes it look more likely as a joke\nthat would appeal to Wolfe - he's certainly included Chicago geography\nin his works before, as well as some other places he's lived. (I think\nI read that Caissonsville in _Peace_ is based on a town he grew up in\n- I'm not sure which.) For that matter, Wolfe has used some elaborate\npuns in TBoTNS. (E.g. the two puns in the version of the Thesus legend.)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "An argument agin' it: the manteions we see are not so specialized,\nrather they serve all the gods. Shrines, yes (specialized); manteions,\nno." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tIt struck me afterwards that the manteion may have been some\nkind of haven for Kypris, assuming that she told Silk the truth about\nbeing hunted. Perhaps she made multiple copies of herself and the one\nin Orchid's survived because the manteion was in disrepair. Then\nagain, Mucor turned up shortly before and she seems to have an\n\"awakening\" effect on Sacred Windows. (They're one kind Microsoft has no\nhand in! ;-))\n\n\tAnother thing about Orchid's and the exorcism conducted there:\nafter Kypris' theophany, Silk remembers that they haven't completed\nthe \"third circuit\" of the manteion. I loved that phrase when I reread that\nscene last night. It reminds me of the scene where Silk buys Oreb in\nthe market and Tick says \"add word\", which reminded me of assembly\nlanguage! (OK, I know Tick uses the wrong words all the time, but I'm\nsure Gene Wolfe wouldn't pass up the opportunity for a little wordplay.)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "(Hey, wait a second--did you title yours \"Thought for the day\"\nbecause today is =Friday=? Very clever!)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tBecause the Friday is (according to Merriam-Webster) \nindirectly derived from _dies_Veneris_? I'm afraid that wasn't my\nintention; it seems my pun is cleverer than me!! Or else I was\npossessed by a minor god! (I don't remember there being a Whorl god of\npuns and wordplay - maybe he's a minor one, possibly demoted for\npunning in Pas' presence too often! Perhaps Lupercus is the deity\nresponsible!)\n\n\tTercel\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com" } ] } ] }