{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1057", "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": 1057, "subject": "Weer's Death, and J.L. Borges", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "1998-08-25T06:34:17+00:00", "last": "1998-08-28T00:08:46+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "CRCulver", "address": "crculver at aol.com" }, "date": "1998-08-25T06:34:17+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Weer's Death, and J.L. Borges", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "William Ansley said:\n\n\nThat's common with Wolfe's books. I read the BotNS three times before I came\nto grasp basic plot structure. I'm sure most of the people on the list can\ntestify to similar occurences. \n\nAnd he continued:\n\n\nPeace includes a great deal of Jorge Luis Borges' influence, and seeing it\nhere can illuminate how it was later used in the Book of the New Sun.\nOne Borgian influence I think is particularly strong is the labyrithine\nsymbolism of Weer's house (which I'm assuming is part of his postmortem\nimagination and doesn't actually exist).\nMr. Gold's writing of books that don't exist reminds me of Borges' tendency to\nmake up books and authors to validate the claims of some of his characters.\nThe story that comes immediately to mind is \"Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.\"\n\nChristopher R. Culver \nhttp://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html\n------------------------------------------------" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1998-08-27T00:38:56+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Weer's Death, and J.L. Borges", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Christopher R. Culver said:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Peace includes a great deal of Jorge Luis Borges' influence, and seeing it\nhere can illuminate how it was later used in the Book of the New Sun.\nOne Borgian influence I think is particularly strong is the labyrithine\nsymbolism of Weer's house (which I'm assuming is part of his postmortem\nimagination and doesn't actually exist)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I prefer to believe that the house does/did exist and it did have \"museum\nrooms\" replicating important rooms in Weer's life. But, I think the real\nhouse certainly wasn't the shifting thing Weer describes in the book, with\nrooms moving about and appearing and disappearing. Building a house with\nmuseum rooms would be a peculiar thing to do, but Weer was a peculiar guy.\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1998-08-27T09:41:18+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Weer's Death, and J.L. Borges", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Thu, 27 Aug 1998, William H. Ansley wrote:\nChristopher R. Culver said:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Peace includes a great deal of Jorge Luis Borges' influence, and seeing it\nhere can illuminate how it was later used in the Book of the New Sun.\nOne Borgian influence I think is particularly strong is the labyrithine\nsymbolism of Weer's house (which I'm assuming is part of his postmortem\nimagination and doesn't actually exist)." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I prefer to believe that the house does/did exist and it did have \"museum\nrooms\" replicating important rooms in Weer's life. But, I think the real\nhouse certainly wasn't the shifting thing Weer describes in the book, with\nrooms moving about and appearing and disappearing. Building a house with\nmuseum rooms would be a peculiar thing to do, but Weer was a peculiar guy." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't know. It seems too obviously a reference to the ancient method of\nenhancing memory by creating an imaginary house or castle in which each\nroom represents a time period or category of knowledge and the objects in\neach room represent the specific things you are trying to remember.\n\nI guess that doesn't rule out Weer literally building such a house (in\nfact, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea--but I'd like it\nmore in a story about some character consciously doing it as an\nextravagant mnemonic device--but then, what is a museum but an extravagant\nmnemonic device?), but I think the shiftiness implies that at a minimum,\nthe house in the story has imaginary rooms/qualities in addition.\n\n-Rostrum" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1998-08-28T00:08:46+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Weer's Death, and J.L. Borges", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Rostrum (Michael Straight ) said:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "I prefer to believe that the house does/did exist and it did have \"museum\nrooms\" replicating important rooms in Weer's life." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I don't know. It seems too obviously a reference to the ancient method of\nenhancing memory by creating an imaginary house or castle in which each\nroom represents a time period or category of knowledge and the objects in\neach room represent the specific things you are trying to remember.\n\nI guess that doesn't rule out Weer literally building such a house (in\nfact, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea--but I'd like it\nmore in a story about some character consciously doing it as an\nextravagant mnemonic device--but then, what is a museum but an extravagant\nmnemonic device?), but I think the shiftiness implies that at a minimum,\nthe house in the story has imaginary rooms/qualities in addition." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I really don't think we disagree very much here. I think there was a \"real\"\nhouse Weer built before he died that had museum rooms in it. I think the\nhouse his ghost inhabits is imaginary and has all sorts of odd properties\nthat no real building could have but had as its starting point in Weer's\n(ghost's) mind the original house the living Weer built.\n\nI agree that the house described in _Peace_ could be wholly imaginary, I\njust don't think it *necessarily* is.\n\n(Of course, I mean imaginary within the world of _Peace_ when I use the\nword above.)\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] } ] }