Is Agia a Robot?

David Stockhoff · 21 Jun 2010, 17:59 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:59:18 -0400
Subject: (urth) Is Agia a Robot?
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John

I've been hoping you would chime in. Very good.

A marionette may certainly be made of anything. It's what done with it 
that matters---or what it does.

John Watkins wrote:
> If only Gene Wolfe had written another text, possibly a short story, 
> exploring the idea of puppets in boxes.  Then maybe someone wiser than 
> I could draw wisdom from that text and apply it to the problem of the 
> paracoita, which is beyond me.
>  
> I will make a few observations that, while not wise, may spur others 
> to wisdom.
>  
> 1)  It seems that delicate and/or doll-like characteristics are 
> attributed to several women in the story, but that Hethor meant one 
> particular paracoita--we may just be dealing with a motif, rather than 
> a puzzle with a definite character as the solution, and there may be 
> red herrings...like a sickening crack of bone on stone being described 
> as as sharp as a metallic clang.  Or not.
>  
> 2)  Severian dreams of marionettes that seemingly represent him and 
> Baldanders.
>  
> 3)  In Urth, Severian-as-White-Fountain describes Severian-as-Man as a 
> "marionette of flesh".
>  
> 4)  An inveterate punster who was also a devout Catholic might be 
> taken by the term "marionette."  It might conceivably please him to 
> make several female characters in a single work "marionettes" in one 
> sense or another.
>  
> 5)  Why lemonwood?  After all, the classic wood for a doll that comes 
> to life is pine.  Per Google, the Howdy-Doody marionette was lemonwood.
>
>
>          
>
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