{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/286",
    "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": 286,
    "subject": "Thinking about Questions",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-05-14T15:51:00+00:00",
    "last": "1997-05-14T15:51:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0005-0269@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Joel Priddy",
        "address": "jpriddy at saturn.vcu.edu"
      },
      "date": "1997-05-14T15:51:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Thinking about Questions",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Geez, an opportunity to get answers from the horses mouth... (or\nrather, the wolf's mouth, which is a more satisfying image) Am I\nup to the task? Should I ask a question at all? It feels like\nlooking in the back of the book for the answer key... Who am I\nkidding, of course I'll ask a question!\n  I'm split between the two concerns I've already posted to this\nlist: one is on the origin of the world (just when in Typhon's\nreign did he send off the Whorl? Specifically, had he been\ngrafted onto Piaton yet, or did the idea for grafting himself\nonto Piaton come after creating the image of Pas?), and one is on\nthe nature of the Whorl as it exists now (what's the source of\ninformation for the divination's from augury?)\n  To expand a bit on these two questions: (1)When did Typhon get\nthe head graft? It seems to be a pretty recent development when\nSeverian returns from Yesod, but Urth technology is already in\ndecline (one doesn't see many fliers anymore, and the villagers\ndon't recognize the boat Severian disembarks from) and the\nculture doesn't seem anything like what would appear to have been\nthe parent culture for the Whorl. Three possiblities would appear\nto be: (a)The second head of Pas is Piaton, meaning the Whorl was\nat least programmed, if not actually setting sail when Severian\nmet the still-living Typhon, (b) Pas is an image designed by\nTyphon in his younger days to be mythic and imposing which later\ninspired a perhaps now-doddering Typhon to recreate it in\nactuality. This puts the Whorl's launch within Typhon's natural\nlifespan, a matter of decades previous to Severian's visit, or\n(c) poor Piaton is the latest in a series of mount/bodies for\nTyphon, meaning that the Whorl could have been launched full\ncenturies earlier.\n  (2) What is the source of information for the auguries? The\noptions that my soft little brain can come up with for the source\nof Silk's very accurate divination are: chance (lucky guess);\ndivine (the Outsider); mechanical (Mainframe); mystical (the\ngods); or psychic (Silk himself). I don't think it's a lucky\nguess (because this is a Wolfe book, after all), and I don't\nthink it's from the Outsider (because it seems like more direct\ninteraction than we'd expect from the Outsider). I don't think\nit's from Mainframe, because if Mainframe had such a subtle form\nof mind control, I think most of the story's more dramatic events\nwouldn't have needed to occur. I don't want to believe that it's\nthe gods as real supernatural gods, as I've stated before. And if\nSilk is a psychic precog... well, it seems like an awful lot of\npower to explain away one little event. So what does that leave\nme with?\n  If anyone has any thoughts or input on these questions, please\nlet me know. I'd hate to waste an chance to ask Wolfe a question\nthat's common knowledge, or flawed in someway that's obvious to\nan outside observer.\n\nJOEL\n(gizzard or cyphlothorax... I'm as indescisive on names as I am\non questions)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}