{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1478",
    "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": 1478,
    "subject": "Butter-fingered Annese",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-04-03T00:50:23+00:00",
    "last": "1999-04-03T17:10:32+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0024-0137@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Roy C. Lackey",
        "address": "rclackey at stic.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-04-03T00:50:23+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re:Butter-fingered Annese",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "On 4-2-99 Mitchell A. Bailey wrote:\n\n<snip>"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "As an aside: I've always found the manual dexterity attribute of the"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Annese kind of troubling. For one thing, it isn't consistently applied.\nHow can a race which can allegedly craft fishing nets be inherently\nincapable of using a shovel? How can a race too clumsy to use tools even\nsurvive? Even chimpanzees use simple tools.\nI suspect that the Annese Manual Dexterity Issue is one of those Wolfean\nSmoking Chekov's Guns which has deep implications going to the very\ntheme of the story (in this case 5HC). It says something fundamental\nabout the nature of the Annese and deserves closer study.<<\n\n    I think Wolfe was applying Lamarck's idea that once an organ or\nattribute has \"lost\" its functionality and, if favorable circumstances for\nit recur, that that organ or attribute can not resume its former\nfunctionality. I think what Wolfe intended here was that the Annese had lost\nthe use of their opposable thumb and could not reacquire it. You can weave a\nnet with just your fingers and teeth, but just try to use a shovel without\nusing your thumb. It is also why V.R.T couldn't write worth a damn.\n\nRoy"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0024-0138@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mitchell A. Bailey",
        "address": "mab at lindau.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-04-03T17:10:32+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Re:Butter-fingered Annese",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0024-0137@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Roy C. Lackey wrote:\n\nOn 4-2-99 Mitchell A. Bailey wrote:\n\n<snip>\nAs an aside: I've always found the manual dexterity attribute of the\nAnnese kind of troubling. ...> \n    I think Wolfe was applying Lamarck's idea that once an organ or\nattribute has \"lost\" its functionality and, if favorable circumstances for it recur, that that organ or attribute can not resume its former\nfunctionality. I think what Wolfe intended here was that the Annese had lost the use of their opposable thumb and could not reacquire it. You can weave a net with just your fingers and teeth, but just try to use a shovel without using your thumb. It is also why V.R.T couldn't write worth a damn.\n\nRoy"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Thanks, Roy\n\nYou meant to say Dollo's law, I presume. Actually, I had never heard of\nDollo's Law until I read 5HC almost twenty years ago, and I never heard\nof Lamarck until I read the archives (Master Ultan Knew exactly which\nshelf to find it upon). My education was rather light on biology.\n\nI am indeed pondering possible answers to my own question, and Lamarck\n(as I understand it from you folks' previous discussions) plays a part.\nWatch this space."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}