Is Agia a Robot?

Jerry Friedman · 17 Jun 2010, 20:57 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:57:21 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Is Agia a Robot?
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> From: David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>

[...]

> Are Agila and Agia sex robots?

Severian failed to notice (or say anything about) any unusual features revealed by decapitating Agilus.  He mentions blood, though.

And since Agilus is presumably not a robot, it seems very strange Agia looks so much like him, unless they're human brother and sister.

Also, Agia is capable of turning pale (beginning of Ch. XXIII of /Shadow/).  That would be real attention to detail in a robot.

People suggest below that Agia is Hethor's lost paracoita.  However, Severian doesn't mention the purple eyes that Hethor describes.

Ryan Dunn wrote:
> Could explain her single-mindedness and the lengths she went to. She IS responsible for much of Severian's story arc early in the story, no?
> 
> ...ryan
> 
> On Jun 17, 2010, at 1:56 PM, Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com <mailto:pb.stuff at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>> I suppose a relevant backdrop to this entire discussion might be "even if she were, what does it matter?"   The calde of Saltus /could/ be a clone of Typhon living out his life in blissful ignorance - but does that change anything as far as the story is concerned? My sense is that it doesn't - Agia can be a robot, a vampire slug, even a Hierodule if you really want her to be.  It's the behavior of the characters that's important, not their creature type.  That only seems to matter insofar as it might help explain their behavior - does her being a robot explain anything?  I don't think so.
>> 
>> Paul
>> 
>> On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 1:46 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com <mailto:danldo at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>>     Hethor's paracoita. I am not convinced of this but could be.
>> 
>>     On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 10:39 AM, John Watkins
>>     <john.watkins04 at gmail.com <mailto:john.watkins04 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>     > I'm lost.  The girl in the box?
>>     >
>>     > On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 1:38 PM, <brunians at brunians.org
>>     <mailto:brunians at brunians.org>> wrote:
>>     >>
>>     >> Not only is Hethor attracted to robots.
>>     >>
>>     >> Agia was the girl in the box.

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