{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1238",
    "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": 1238,
    "subject": "Various and Sundry...",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-10-31T13:16:48+00:00",
    "last": "1998-10-31T13:16:48+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0021-0029@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alex David Groce",
        "address": "adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu"
      },
      "date": "1998-10-31T13:16:48+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Various and Sundry...",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "THE LANGUAGES OF PAO:\n\tGood book, I'm sure Wolfe's read it.  I think it was somewhat spoiled\nfor me, though--I read it just after finishing Pinker's THE LANGUAGE INSTINCT\nfor a class in cognitive science.  Vance's book is VERY Sapir-Whorfian, and\nPinker made it very hard to turn off the \"this is nonsense\" meter.  \n\nAscians:\n\tYes, I think that Loyal to the Group of 17 proves Wolfe isn't a\nWhorfian.  Actually, as to the idea that the language only works so long as we\ndon't picture the Ascians sitting around saying \"meet at 2:00 and ambush those\ndamned Southerners...,\" I suspect the language is one of the things that\nprevents the Ascians from winning, despite their superior technology and help\nfrom Abaia & Erebus.  Even though the 17's Orwellian plan has failed, it's\nsucceeded in limiting the soldiers' ability to communicate effectively.\n\nThe Translation from the Future:\n\tWolfe treats it fairly lightly, although he does go to the trouble to\nexplain in the beginning of Urth how he might have gotten hold of Severian's\nnarrative.  Which is one of my favorite things about that book--the idea of\nWolfe sitting in his backyard, gardening, digging up a lead coffer...\n\tAlso, it's a nice parallel to the MS found behind a vase in the British\nMuseum for the Soldier books.  The monuments surviving from futurity, by the\nway, I assume to be things that Wolfe thinks will survive until Severian's\ntime--although what they might be I can't imagine--the Grand Canyon?  \n\nOwen Barfield:\n\tI'm sure he influenced Lewis' view.  Weren't they friends in real life?\nIn fact, I'm thinking somewhere Lewis explicitly says something like \"Barfield\ninfluenced my ideas on this stuff.\""
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.\" - John 8:32\n--\nAlex David Groce (adgroce at eos.ncsu.edu)\nSenior (Computer Science/Multidisciplinary Studies in Technology & Fiction)\n'98-99 NCSU AITP Student Chapter President\n608 Charleston Road, Apt. 1E (919)-233-7366\nhttp://www4.ncsu.edu/~adgroce"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}