{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/148",
    "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": 148,
    "subject": "some questions about Death Island, Doctors, and underpeople",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-08-12T09:46:31+00:00",
    "last": "1997-08-12T09:46:31+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0003-0229@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Peter Cash",
        "address": "cash at rsn.hp.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-08-12T09:46:31+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) some questions about Death Island, Doctors, and underpeople",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In regard to \"Tracking Song\": are the \"underpeople\" animals that are\nevolving toward humanity, or humans who are devolving to an animal\nstate? The cave city is clear evidence of an ancient and technologically\nsophisticated civilization existing on the planet. We are led to believe\nthat the builders of the city simply died out. But perhaps they\ngenetically altered themselves to better adapt to the changing climate?\nIf so, then their plans went astray at some point, of course.\n\nI liked \"Alien Stones\" also, though I found it puzzling (of course, the\nmore puzzling a Wolfe story, the better I like it.) There is a hint at\nthe end that all is illusion--that the entire voyage is perhaps a\nsimulation. What do you all think about that? \n\nAside from the Cartesian \"dream argument\", it seems to me that this is a\nstory about youth and age--and about how it would be nice if our young\nselves could have learned the ropes from their older (and presumably\nsmarter) counterparts. Also, isn't it true that our young personae\ncontinue to live inside ourselves as we get old and crusty? Maybe we\nneed to listen to the \"understudy\" sometimes when we make decisions.\n\n\"The Doctor of Death Island\" made me furrow my brow also. (Is that the\nright title? I don't have the book with me--I'm talking about the story\nin which the prisoner was cryogenically preserved and re-awakened after\n40 years or so.) For one thing, where's the island?\n\nThe prisoner's wife's \"daughter\"...is she a clone of the wife, created\nto be the prisoner's lover? Wolfe never quite comes out and says so. The\n\"we're all books in a bookshelf\" Did I miss something? metaphor was\nnice, but seems to get dropped as abruptly as it was brought up. What is\nthe \"brain surgeon\" with the deformed hand all about? \n\nPeter (a.k.a. \"Rock\")"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}