Appian

Roy C. Lackey · 28 Aug 2006, 05:47 · from 2006-August.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 00:47:22 -0500
Subject: (urth) Appian
Message-ID: <005501c6ca65$737b35c0$e83ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Jeff  Wilson quoted and wrote:
>> All in all, I think the preponderance of evidence suggests that Sancha's
>> Appian was not the Old Autarch, and that the last four rulers of the
>> Commonwealth were, in order, Appian, Maruthas, the Old Autarch and
Severian.
>> Sev, though he has all the guy's memories, goes out of his way *not* to
>> mention the guy's name. Why? And what was the name?
>
>Considering the way Thecla's memories loom and threaten to take over
>whenever she is called to mind, perhaps avoiding the old Autarch's
>personal name is an attempt to keep *that* set of memories from taking
over?

She did take over at times, notably when Sev and the autarch were on the
doomed flier. In fact, the autarch pulled a gun on her/him when it happened.
That would have been a good time for Sev/Thecla to drop the guy's name --
there was no good reason then not to reveal it, because all present knew
what it was.

-Roy

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