{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/356",
    "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": 356,
    "subject": "Nix X",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1997-06-19T09:35:02+00:00",
    "last": "1997-06-19T23:38:31+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0006-0372@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-06-19T09:35:02+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Nix X",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I want to object to a creeping assumption in the last few posts, that\nSeverian is Christian. Wolfe may be [is] Christian, it's possible that the\nShort Sun books may move in a Christian direction, like a good deal of the\nCordwainer Smith or C.S. Lewis work, and Severian himself may be \"a form of\nthe Outsider,\" but that doesn't make him a Christian as I understand it. An\navatar of Christ, maybe, which is a little different.\n\n-alga- "
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0006-0373@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jim Jordan",
        "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-06-19T23:38:31+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) Nix X",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0006-0372@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 09:35 AM 6/19/97 -0400, you wrote:\n\n[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]\n\nI want to object to a creeping assumption in the last few posts, that\nSeverian is Christian. Wolfe may be [is] Christian, it's possible that the\nShort Sun books may move in a Christian direction, like a good deal of the\nCordwainer Smith or C.S. Lewis work, and Severian himself may be \"a form of\nthe Outsider,\" but that doesn't make him a Christian as I understand it. An\navatar of Christ, maybe, which is a little different.\n\n-alga- "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Dear Alga,\n\n\tI don't want to get into an Alga-Nutria war, but once again I need to\nbring in Gene's own statement, to me, that Severian is not a Christ figure\nbut a Christian figure. That's from the horse's (pardon, wolf's) mouth. \n\tNow, the difference I see between the Severian and Silk novels is that we\nsee Silk's religious trauma directly, while very rarely do we see\nSeverian's faith in action. I don't recall any point of conversion for\nSeverian, and he certainly is not a \"good\" Christian. (Recall how he can't\nwait to commit adultery once he gets on The Ship!) Gene's explanation to me\nwhen I asked him about this is that Severian comes from a horrible\nbackground and is trying to overcome it, and at some points either doesn't\nknow better, or backslides easily. That was the gist of his reply. \n\tI have not re-read the Severian series since my interview with Wolfe\n(which is available at Paul Duggan's site, though I don't think those\nquestions are in the interview), and so I cannot point to specific passages\nthat hint in this direction. \n\tFrankly, when I first read the four original Severians, I decided that\nthis was a closed gnostic universe, and that Severian was an antichrist\n(like the clones in Fifth Head). Wolfe was not happy with that at all when\nI wrote him about it. That's how the discussion got going. \n\tSo, Alga, I guess you and I both need to re-read and try to see what we\nmissed the first time(s).\n\nNutria"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}