{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1223",
    "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": 1223,
    "subject": "reservoir tipped",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-10-22T09:54:47+00:00",
    "last": "1998-10-22T13:39:13+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0020-0094@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Parmenter",
        "address": "dan at lec.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-22T09:54:47+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) reservoir tipped",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: \"Mike\" <lsanto at concentric.net>\n                      The blade is inspired by an actual \"weapons\" (tool\nis more like it), the rounded tip is from French executioners blades (as\nused on Ann Boleyn--sp?). The internal reservoir filled with mercury comes\nfrom Chinese BCE era executioners swords. Both apparently worked quite well\nfor their respective tasks. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Mike, didn't you once tell me (off-list) that Wolfe had at one point\ncited a specific reference work on an actual family of medieval\nexecutioners?  I'm spacing on anything useful like a name or an\nauthor. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: \"Kieran Cleary\" <kierannwn at tinet.ie>\nisn't the tip of TE flat?  Interesting about the Chinese swords."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Yes, another of the many \"Chinese\" features of the series.\n\nI always found it interesting that Wolfe used the canonical\ntorturer/executioner image (bare-chested, hooded, sometimes cloaked)\nbut eschewed the customary axe.  Or am I mistaken?  Is the \"canonical\"\ntorturer just as likely to be equiped with a sword as an axe?\n\nWhere did this image originate?\n\nDan, who is still actually trying to come up with a good \"Whorl\"\nname.  Currently toying with \"Shellac\" (made from the excretions of\nthe Laccifer lacca, and thus, seemingly as valid as \"Silk\")."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0020-0095@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mark Millman",
        "address": "mark_millman at hmco.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-22T13:39:13+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) reservoir tipped",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0020-0094@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On 22 October 1998 at 4:55 pm GMT,\nDan Parmenter wrote:\nI always found it interesting that Wolfe\nused the canonical torturer/executioner\nimage (bare-chested, hooded, some-\ntimes cloaked) but eschewed the cus-\ntomary axe.  Or am I mistaken?  Is the\n\"canonical\" torturer just as likely to be\nequiped with a sword as an axe?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In England (and in the Germanic countries generally,\nto a lesser extent) the axe was favored; on the Con-\ntinent (and especially in the Romance countries) the\nsword was preferred.\n\nThe sword, of course, carries better symbolic freight\nfor Wolfe's purposes, even leaving aside the South\nAmerican (thus Spanish) cultural heritage of the\nCommonwealth."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Where did this image originate?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I leave this for others to answer.  (I think it may be an\nidealization of the actual appearance of executioners,\nbut I'm far from sure)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Dan, who is still actually trying to come\nup with a good \"Whorl\" name.  Currently\ntoying with \"Shellac\" (made from the\nexcretions of the Laccifer lacca, and thus,\nseemingly as valid as \"Silk\")."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Mark Millman\n(who would be using \"Nacre\" as a nom-de-Verticille\nif he were posting to the Whorl, and so supports\nDan's \"Shellac\" without reservation)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}