{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/103",
    "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": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 103,
    "subject": "The Changeling",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-07-16T00:18:02+00:00",
    "last": "1997-07-16T00:18:02+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0002-0165@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jim Jordan",
        "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-07-16T00:18:02+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) The Changeling",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\t\"The Changling\" continues to be a mystery to me, but maybe Mantis or Alga\nknows something, or has read something, or someone else has caught some\nclews I've missed. Here goes:\n\n\tIn a rough way, the narrative is pegged to a Peter Pan scenario, just as\n*Free Live Free* is roughly pegged to *The Wizard of Oz.* But I don't see\nany other Peter Pan bits. (Peter Pan somehow relates to Peter\nPalmer/Palmieri.) But I've never read the original Peter Pan.\n\n\tIt looks a whole lot like the Italian family is a code for the Church.\n(Compare the Italian Restaurant in *There Are Doors*.) Mama is the Church,\nand the infallible Papa is Jesus or God, companion of wandering friars and\nalso of the down-&-out; and because he/He is dead (has died) he can\nperceive things others can't (see below). The kids are Maria (Mary), Peter,\nand Paul, leaders of the Church in that order.\n\tNow, a class picture was taken at Immaculate Conception School in the\nfourth grade. Why? I submit that this is because that's when the sacrament\nof Holy Confirmation is given to kids. And if I'm right, this may be a key.\nSuppose at that point, a True Spiritual Peter (Palmieri) is split off from\nthe old Peter Palmer. Peter Palmer recalls another Peter Palmieri, but no\none else does. He recalls fighting him. In the fight, Palmer was the cruel\nkid, and Palmieri was his good half. Palmer attacks Maria and kills a frog;\nPalmieri defends both. When Palmer moves away, and goes bad in Korea,\nPalmieri remains behind, always a spiritual child who has never grown up. \n\tLet's put it another way: Peter Palmer was confirmed, but was spiritually\nstillborn. He did not accept the gift of the Spirit. His new \"self\" thus\nremained in the Church with Mama and Papa and Maria and Paul, but never\ngrew up. Meanwhile, Peter Palmer went his own way. (Every Christian has two\nhalves, the old Adamic \"flesh\" and the new person \"in Christ.\")\n\tIn the photo, there is only one Peter. Palmer remembers two, but he is\nspiritually split, and that is why.\n\tMeanwhile, the town does not know of Palmer's adult life. For them, he has\nremained a child, adopted into the Palmieri home (the Church).\n\tAfter a time of being an adult, and ruining his life, Palmer returns to\nCassonsville. He reverts to being a child, and lives on the kids' island,\nlike Peter Pan. His attempt to find fulfillment as an adult apart from the\nChurch has been a failure, and he reverts to an isolated childhood that can\nhave no fruition of any sort. \n\tNow, suppose that Palmer accepted the Palmieri's offer, and moved into\nMaria's room (into Mary's house, into the Church), and became part of the\nsociety of the Palmieri (Italian; Church) homelife. In that way he might\nstart over again, beginning at the point of his Confirmation, and become\none with Peter Palmieri.\n\tNow, some points:\n\t1. Who is dead? Peter Palmer's father, from the beginning of the story. He\nwas the last of Palmer's family. Is Papa dead? It would not seem so, though\nhe is described in a way similar to Palmer's father. Rather, I suggest that\njust as Palmer has somehow been adopted into the Palmieri family, so his\ndead father is in that family also (since, being Italian, it is the\nChurch), and his dead father's spirit may give insight to Papa. \n\t2. The rock throwing incident. On the shore, as an adult, Palmer sees the\nisland as near and large. Once on the island, Palmer becomes as a child\nagain: the island becomes boy-sized, and farther from the short. When Paul\nthrows the rock, he sees it hit the near land; while Palmer and the other\nboys see it splash into the water, the shore being farther away. It would\nseem that both are \"true.\"\n\t3. Assuming all the above is valid -- and boy, I'm sure not sure at all --\nmaybe the permanent Peter Palmieri is the Papacy. Thus, he is unchanging,\nwhile others are born, grow, and die around him. He is with a group of boys\n(disciples?). On the island, he is one of three, surrounded by crosses\n(swords with crosspieces stuck in the ground): Peter, James, & John? And:\nWhere is Cassonsville and the Kanakesee River? Are they near St. Louis,\nwhere the Cardinals play baseball? Notice the baseball game in the story.\n\n\tWell, that's it, folks. I've done my job of spitting out as much as I can\nmake of the story. Time for you to tear it down and do a better job.\n\nI'm waiting.\n\nNutria"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}