Index · 2 messages · 1 voice · 29 Jun 1997

Digest urth.v002.n012

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Alice Turner29 Jun 1997, 22:34original as archived

↰ answers Paul C Duggan · by quotation

Sarcos (that's a Vironese name?---as if!)

5 quoted lines · 1–2 deep

Agia's casual reference to the Theoanthropos (the only such reference in the quintet) is equivalent to one of us saying "Jumping Jehosaphat!"

Bwah ha ha ha! Yer kidding rite? "casual" references? mentioned "only" once? That's supposed to mean it isn't important or significant? This is Wolfe, you algid hearted pond-scum! ( :-) ) We only say Jehoshephat because there was someone of that name. How does Agia know of any theoanthropos?

Well, I'm presuming she can read. And if she can't read, there are stories, an oral tradition. How do we know of Hercules or Hecuba? And the subject originally related to whether Severian is a Christian. Care to offer your proof that he is? Suckah? -pondscum-

Alice Turner29 Jun 1997, 23:03original as archived

↳ follows Alice Turner · by subject

I put that badly. The point really is that one can say "Jumping Jehosaphat!" without having the foggiest idea of who (or what) Jehosaphat was, simply because it's ingrained in tradition, like saying "Geshundeit!" when someone sneezes, whether or not you believe in demons. Agia makes a casual, throwaway reference. The reference is not picked up as significant by Severian, nor is it a plot point anywhere else in the quintet. I take it that there is a traditional story of such a character, perhaps in the Brown Book, but certainly somewhere in the long rich half-forgotten history of Urth. And since my own position is that Severian himself is a form of that character, then, yes, indeed there is significance in Agia's throwaway line. -alga-

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