Mystery of Agia

Jeff Wilson · 20 Jan 2011, 17:26 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:26:42 -0600
Subject: (urth) Mystery of Agia
In-Reply-To: <4D3829E1.4030401 at gmail.com>
References: <SNT123-W43D185FDD8C5BF1217392BCFF60 at phx.gbl>	<4D37C0B5.2060000 at io.com>
	<4D3829E1.4030401 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4D387052.1030302 at io.com>

On 1/20/2011 6:26 AM, Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote:
> Jeff Wilson wrote (20-01-2011 04:57):
>> On 1/19/2011 3:21 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>>> What is that B.S.? At the least it is a gun on the wall in Act 1 which
>>> is never fired. (actually I think Severian encounters both Agia and the
>>> Green Man in different guises in UotNS but that's another story). Why
>>> does she let Severian go, never to find him again?
>>
>> Agia is impulsive but not stupid; she knows exactly where to find him,
>> but the odds of an enjoyable revenge against the Autarch are slim.
>
> I'm not sure, but it seems to me that part of her impulsiveness is staged.

Impulsiveness may not be the word. She might be overconfident, or simply 
not have much too lose, but for some reason she is prone to taking risks 
with little or no preparation.  The fiacre race, the theft of the Claw, 
leaving the cabin while the alzabo was around? Not stuff I would be so 
eager to do.


> All are reasonable points, but none answers why Agia even appears in the
> story in the first place, or isn't simply killed off early.

She hangs around for four books so the author can show how Sev deals 
with the consequences of his actions that he *can't* leave behind him.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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