{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/97",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "sflovers",
  "thread": {
    "id": 97,
    "subject": "GENE WOLFE'S BOOK OF DAYS by Gene Wolfe",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1992-05-01T17:01:00+00:00",
    "last": "1992-05-01T17:01:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<sflovers-v17-210-15@digest.sf-lovers>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070",
        "address": "ecl at mtgzy.att.com"
      },
      "date": "1992-05-01T17:01:00+00:00",
      "subject": "GENE WOLFE'S BOOK OF DAYS by Gene Wolfe",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "GENE WOLFE'S BOOK OF DAYS by Gene Wolfe\n\t\t  Arrow, 1985, ISBN 0-09-939230-5, L2.25.\n\t\t     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper\n\n   You're probably asking why I'm bothering to review a seven-year-old book\nnow, especially in a British edition.  Well, first of all, some people who\nare reading this may actually live in Britain, but also, if I managed to\nfind this, you might too.\n\n   Clearly I'm going to recommend this book (else why would I be reviewing\nit?).  It's an intriguing idea - eighteen stories, each for a particular\nholiday.  Though this edition is British, there was an American edition in\n1981, which would explain the choice of some purely American holidays:\nLincoln's Birthday, Arbor Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, ...  It's\nodd, in fact, that Independence Day is missing - I wonder if it was in the\noriginal edition and omitted in this one.  And the Memorial Day story is\nabout World War II, not the Civil War.  I should explain to the majority of\nUnited States readers as well as those elsewhere that Arbor Day is a\nholiday celebrating trees (no, not by cutting them down, like at Christmas,\nbut by planting them).  It's very popular in the Midwest, especially in the\nschools - I can remember every year in school in Illinois buying a small\nsapling for a nickel (if I recall correctly - certainly no more than a\ndime) and taking it home to plant it in the yard.  Two or three of the five\nactually survived until we moved - they may still be there.  However, it\ncould be that the Midwest borrowed it from Israel.  (Gene Wolfe lives in\neither Illinois or Indiana, so that would explain his use of Arbor Day.)\n\n   Now that I have finished the Midwest cultural lesson, I can return to\nthe book at hand.  What makes this collection even more unusual is that\nWolfe did not start out to write a story for each holiday.  The copyright\ndates indicate that they were written over a span of several years, but\nthis merely underscores the importance holidays have in our lives.  Even\nwhen the holiday is not mentioned in the story, it is the same underlying\nmotivation for both.  Wolfe's stories would be good even without the\nholiday theme, but it serves to focus our attention on the fact that\nholidays were not just invented by greeting card companies (well, not all\nholidays anyway) and that they have a meaning and, to the extent they show\nus that meaning, a purpose.  And this is what makes this collection worth\nseeking out.\n\nEvelyn C. Leeper"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}