{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/359",
    "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": 359,
    "subject": "Digest whorl.v006.n008",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1997-06-21T11:56:55+00:00",
    "last": "1997-06-22T09:29:46+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0006-0377@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Kevin McGuire",
        "address": "kmcguire at itw.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-06-21T11:56:55+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v006.n008",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Alga writes:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "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- "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "and Nutria replies:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I 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. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I would argue (respectfully, of course) that regardless of Wolfe's\nintentionality, Severian is for my money,  a Christ figure, without\nbeing a Christian (in the sense of modern christianity).  Not to\nbelabour the point, but Severian healed the sick, raised the dead\n(and for good measure saves humanity entirely by restarting the red\nsun) and, like the Fisher King, was lame.  Obviously there is no \ndirect correspondence between all Severian's actions and those of \nChrist - I think Wolfe is writing much more than a mere allegory.  \n\nSilk, on the other hand, is much farther removed from the miraculous \ntradition that Severian embodies.  Silk strikes me as a penitent and \ntruthful man who gradually discovers that the tradition he followed \nis not the embodiment of goodness that he had taken it to be, and \nmust discover a new path of enlightenment (or perhaps have one thrust \nupon him, by revelation) - perhaps more similar to Paul than Christ.\n\nMythologically inclined folks might want to comment that just as\nSeverian is a Christ figure, he also represents (ala Joe Campbell) a\nheroic tradition that is far broader and older than Christianity\nproper, and I have no problem with that. \n\nOn another Biblical note, it is clear that in the inhumi we have a \nsnake in the Garden, but I didn't notice that much in the way of \nSatanic imagery in Urth books - or was I not paying attention?\nKevin McGuire    |\"Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than\nPhiladelphia, PA | when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right\"\n                 |    --Laurents van der Post"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0006-0378@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Patri10629",
        "address": "patri10629 at aol.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-06-22T09:29:46+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v006.n008",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0006-0377@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "My computer scanned Kevin McQuire's signature/quote  this way.\n\n<< |\"Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than\nPhiladelphia, PA >>\n\n\nIt took me a bewildered moment or two to decipher this as a weird line break.\nActually, it struck me as similar to the endings of many Wolfe stories:)\n\nBest\n\nPatrick O'Leary"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}