{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1344", "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": 1344, "subject": "Peace and Weer's Imagination", "messages": 4, "voices": 2, "first": "1999-01-26T03:50:53+00:00", "last": "1999-01-31T22:26:32+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "CRCulver", "address": "crculver at aol.com" }, "date": "1999-01-26T03:50:53+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Peace and Weer's Imagination", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "David Duffy said:\n<>\n\nSo Weer conjures them up just like he does the doctor.\n\nThis leads us to another conundrum: how could Weer know enough about medicine\n(specifically stroke treatment) to give the doctor something to say and to\ncause small talk between Sherry and Ted (though the latter may be due to a\nremembered event)? Or are the dead omniscient?\n\nA tiny, teeny question: when Weer mentions his face is stuck in one position,\nare we talking here about rigor mortis? In fact, is rigor mortis his \"stroke,\"\ni.e. his lack of mobility?\n\nCheers,\n\nChristopher R. Culver \nPresident Pro-Tempore of USEJ\nPrezidanto Dumtempa de USEJ\n--------------------------------------------------\nhttp://ttt.esperanto.org/usej/" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1999-01-27T01:02:14+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Peace and Weer's Imagination", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Christopher R. Culver said:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "David Duffy said:\n<>\n\nSo Weer conjures them up just like he does the doctor.\n\nThis leads us to another conundrum: how could Weer know enough about medicine\n(specifically stroke treatment) to give the doctor something to say and to\ncause small talk between Sherry and Ted (though the latter may be due to a\nremembered event)? Or are the dead omniscient?\n\nA tiny, teeny question: when Weer mentions his face is stuck in one position,\nare we talking here about rigor mortis? In fact, is rigor mortis his \"stroke,\"\ni.e. his lack of mobility?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I wouldn't call Weer's mental state a dream. My interpretation is that he\nis casting his mind back through his memories, in no particular order, and\nthat all of the events he recalls are based on \"real\" memories, even if\nthey have been altered by time as Weer admits they have more than once.\n\nEven the visits to the doctors for advice are based on memories of real\nvisits, in my opinion. Weer is extrapolating what they might have said if\nhe asked them the questions he describes about having had a stroke in the\nfuture from what he remembers Dr. Black and Dr. Van Ness saying to him\nduring visits he actually made to them during his lifetime.\n\nAssuming Weer is speaking for the doctors, he really doesn't need any\nmedical knowledge to answer his question about what his best course of\naction is, following his stroke. He only wants to know if he should be as\nactive as he can be or rest as much as possible and, as Weer himself says,\nthere isn't much difference between the two in his current state. The whole\ndoctor episode could be considered to be the mental equivalent of flipping\na coin, in this case, although much more reassuring because of the illusion\nof getting outside advice.\n\nI say \"assuming\" at the start of the previous paragraph because I don't\ncompletely reject the idea that Weer is actually sending his mind back in\ntime. In fact, I prefer this hypothsis, but I admit it raises many\ndifficult questions. The haunted hotel that Weer's Aunt Bella describes in\nher article \"Ghost-Chaser Number Three\" actually seems to be a case of a\ntemporal cross-over; perhaps Weer's haunting of his own past involves real\ntime travel.\n\nI don't see any difficulty about the \"small talk between Sherry and Ted\" or\nany other conversation that Weer reports. They are memories, probably all\nreconstructed to some degree.\n\nI don't think that Weer's stroke is due to rigor mortis setting in. Weer\nhas been dead a long time, far too long for there to be much in the way of\nmortal remains left, much less a corpse capable of undergoing rigor.\nRemember, the elm tree that was planted on his grave (after he died) has\nbecome quite large and has fallen over.\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "CRCulver", "address": "crculver at aol.com" }, "date": "1999-01-31T00:05:19+00:00", "subject": "Re: Re: (urth) Peace and Weer's Imagination", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "William Ansley said:\n<>\n\nThis possibility recalls the possibility that Severian's rescuers in the inn\nduring the Age of the Monarch were himself.\n\n\n<>\n\nSo Weer, as he is narrating _Peace_, is purely mind? And his \"house\" is simply\nhis means of exploring his memories, I guess.\n\n\n<>\n\nI assumed it fell due to the storm that Weer reflects on in the beginning\nparagraph.\n\nCheers,\n\nChristopher R. Culver \nPresident Pro-Tempore of USEJ\nPrezidanto Dumtempa de USEJ\n--------------------------------------------------\nhttp://ttt.esperanto.org/usej/" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1999-01-31T22:26:32+00:00", "subject": "Re: Re: (urth) Peace and Weer's Imagination", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "<>\n\nSo Weer, as he is narrating _Peace_, is purely mind? And his \"house\" is simply\nhis means of exploring his memories, I guess." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "That's as good a guess as any and better than most, I would say." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "<>\n\nI assumed it fell due to the storm that Weer reflects on in the beginning\nparagraph." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "That's interesting. I also thought a storm was mentioned in the first\nparagraph of _Peace_, until I went back and re-read it before manking the\nposting you quoted (and I requoted) above. But no storm is mentioned, go\nback and take a look. The tree may have fallen because of a storm, but all\nWeer hears is the dripping of melting snow and icicles. He woke too late to\nhear the tree fall, but assumes that \"from the number of shattered limbs\nand the size of the trunk there must have been a terrible crashing.\"\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] } ] }