From: "Alex David Groce" <adgroce@eos.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Malrubius
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 12:53:23 

Perhaps, since they reflect Severian's ideas of the person, it's a circular
proof--because Severian feels that Malrubius would certify him as autarch, that
seals his autarch-hood--after all, the autarch is the "self-ruler".  Perhaps
only someone who's used the phallus and gained the memories can conceive of an
aquastor (especially a mentor such as Mal.) as viewing him as the proper
autarch?

On Oct 16,  8:42pm, Robert Borski wrote:
> Subject: (urth) Malrubius
> When Severian's cabin aboard the Quasar is broken into by Idas and
> plundered, Sev has only one big worry: "Whatever he had sought, I had
> possessed only one treasure: the letter Master Malrubius had given me,
> identifying me as the legitimate Autarch of Urth." (URTH, p.42) 
> 
> Malrubius, being dead of course, he means the aquastared version of
> Malrubius, as Idas later confirms ("Your letter, the one that the aquastars
> of Urth gave you for the Hierogrammate...")
> 
> But hold on a second here. How is it that an aquastar, and of Malrubius no
> less, has this much cachet with a grand Pooh Bah of Briah? Aren't aquastars
> true to the memories held of them? And if they are, why would the
> Hierogrammate find a letter from Malrubius--a dead Master of the
> Torturers--more compelling and legitimate than one from, say, Father Inire?
> Or does the Hierodule animating machine put a little of itself into each
> aquastar--kind of a secret sharer, co-intelligence (in which case a letter
> from Triskele would have as much value as one from Malrubius)? I have my
> theories, of course; but rather than be laughed off this list once more
> time, I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts first.
> 
> Oh yeah. While I'm talking about aquastars, Miles is one.
> 
> Robert Borski
> 
> *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/
> 
>-- End of excerpt from Robert Borski



-- 
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (adgroce@eos.ncsu.edu)
Senior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)
'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President
608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/