{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/150",
    "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": 150,
    "subject": "Seven American Nights",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1997-08-13T15:05:50+00:00",
    "last": "1997-08-26T12:03:12+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0004-0232@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Peter Cash",
        "address": "cash at rsn.hp.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-08-13T15:05:50+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Seven American Nights",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Finished Seven American Nights last night. I've decided that for Wolfe,\nplot is a kind of opiate that he introduces into his stories to keep you\nhooked until the end--when it turns out that the plot doesn't matter at\nall. This story is a good instance: in the end, the possibility is\nraised that the entire story is a fake, written by the investigator to\ninveigle the boy's mother into giving him more money to carry on the\n\"investigation\". Thus, the very foundation of the story is undermined.\n\nBut if the story is counterfeit, why did the investigator write such an\nunpalatable one? Surely if his purpose was to extract money, he could\nhave written something a bit more up-beat, something that the mother\n(and the lovely Jasmine) would _want_ to believe. \n\nThe actress' deformity (sorry, the book is at home and I have no memory\nfor names) was pretty much a cliche'--you could see it coming. Still, it\nwas well-handled. (One wonders--what kind of deformity is so gross as to\ncause our hero's drastic reaction, but cannot be discovered by touch\nwhile the two were making love?)"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0004-0270@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Marty Light",
        "address": "marty_light at siecor.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-08-26T12:03:12+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Seven American Nights",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0004-0232@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Thanks to all for the great discussion!  I've been lurking in the\nbackground, re-reading Wolfe (and Crowley and Pynchon) as quickly as I am\nable, and saving the group's comments for future re-readings.  At the risk\nof appearing not up to the high standards already exhibited by the current\ncontributors...here are a couple of points on which I'd like your\ncollective thoughts:\n\n1) Call me dumb, but I think I just \"got it\" in reference to the title\n\"Seven American Nights\" with a Middle-Eastern protagonist compared with\n\"1001 Arabian Nights\" (and they are both prime numbers ;-)...\n\n2) One of the earlier stories in IODDAOSAOS is called \"The Hero as\nWerewolf\" (typing from memory since book is at home).  While I can't\npretend to understand this particular story, it references people who have\nbeen genetically altered -- perhaps by chemicals in the environment -- and\nhave lupine characteristics.  One of the characters is named Garou, which\nmeans Wolf(e) or werewolf in some language (loup garou -- mantis?).  There\nis some talk about these mutants going to the park to put on theater\nproductions.  To me, it seems like this story is set in the same\n\"universe\", country and time-frame as \"Seven American Nights\".  The beast\ntie-in might NOT then be a hallucination on Nadan's part, but a real event.\n(I thought I'd egg you on about this hallucination vs reality thread.)  I\nnever made the connection between these stories, which I initially read\nwhen the first paperback printing came out 16 or so years back, until the\nmost recent reading.\n\n3) I very much would like to subscribe to both a Wolfe-only mail list and\nan other-author list.  Wolfe's works certainly have attracted enough of us\nto keep up a lively discussion.  As we tackle other authors and books (e.g.\nCrowley, Pynchon) we could certainly spin them off if they begin to\ndominate the discussion.  I just think it's great to get others'\nperspectives and insights on things in these challenging literary works\nthat enrich my personal experience while reading them.\n\nI don't know if this characterizes me as a \"chem\" or a Hierodule, but since\nmy real surname is Light, sign me off as...\n\n...Photon.\n\nPS - alga, please send me a copy of the review you mentioned last week,\nfaulty though it may be.  Thanks!"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}