{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1510", "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": 1510, "subject": "The Book of the Short Sun", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1999-04-10T05:23:01+00:00", "last": "1999-04-12T08:47:22+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Nicholas Gevers", "address": "potto at webmail.co.za" }, "date": "1999-04-10T05:23:01+00:00", "subject": "(urth) The Book of the Short Sun", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thanks to Michael for his introduction and to Robert Borski and Alice\nTurner for their welcomes. Thanks also to all who've responded to the\n\"Nova Express\" article. I've written a sequel article which has yet to\nfind a publisher; if anyone's interested, I can e-mail that to you.\nRegarding my speculation that the inhumi may be a good deal more\nsympathetic than most would believe (sorry for discussing this here,\nbut Whorl is inactive these days): first, my gratitude to Michael for\ncalling on the pitchforks to stand down; a speculative spoiler is not\na spoiler at all. And Michael, you say you know no more about the\ncontent of Short Sun than the publishers do: but don't they have the\nmanuscripts of Volumes One and Two to hand? So what do you know? I\ndon't mind spoilers; you can tell me in private correspondence.\nSecond, the colonialism question: there's a rather useful commentary\non Fifth Head in a volume entitled \"Science, Myth, and the Fictional\nCreation of Alien Worlds\" by Albert Wendland (Ann Arbor, Mich: UMI\nResearch Press, 1982). Something worth adding to secondary\nbibliographies. I think it's a reasonable guess that, considering how\ncolonial guilt haunts both Fifth Head and TBotNS, a concern of Short\nSun will be the justice of anyone occupying someone else's territory\nunasked (assuming, of course, that Blue isn't Ushas, in which case the\ncargo are simply returning home). Wolfe does a masterful job of\nkeeping Quetzal's true intentions and moral nature ambiguous in Long\nSun; this is a foundation for SOMETHING remarkable.\n//--------------------------------------\nNicholas Gevers\npotto at webmail.co.za" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1999-04-10T16:27:10+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) The Book of the Short Sun", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sat, 10 Apr 1999, Nicholas Gevers wrote:\nRegarding my speculation that the inhumi may be a good deal more\nsympathetic than most would believe (sorry for discussing this here,\nbut Whorl is inactive these days): " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I think it's a reasonable guess that, considering how\ncolonial guilt haunts both Fifth Head and TBotNS, a concern of Short\nSun will be the justice of anyone occupying someone else's territory\nunasked (assuming, of course, that Blue isn't Ushas, in which case the\ncargo are simply returning home). Wolfe does a masterful job of\nkeeping Quetzal's true intentions and moral nature ambiguous in Long\nSun; this is a foundation for SOMETHING remarkable." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Speaking of ambiguity, we might remember that the Long Sun books were\nwritten by a colonist (Horn) who may not have been entirely impartial in\nhis portrayal of Quetzal and the inhumi. Some of the scenes where we get\nthe most characterization of Quetzal must be somewhat speculative\nreconstruction on Horn's part, or at best second or third hand accounts\n(such as the scenes with Quetzal and Remora).\n\nAs a colonist, Horn may have reasons (real or imagined, just or unjust) to\ndislike the inhumi that he projects back into the Long Sun narrative.\n\n-Rostrum" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Westlake", "address": "peter at harlequin.co.uk" }, "date": "1999-04-12T08:47:22+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) The Book of the Short Sun", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 07:23 1999-04-10 +0200, Nicholas Gevers wrote:\n...(sorry for discussing this here,\nbut Whorl is inactive these days)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Has it stopped working? It seemed okay last time I posted to it.\nIt wouldn't be inactive if you had posted this to it, and there\nare quite a lot of spoilers in these messages. Of course, it is\na while since tBotLS was published, and most people will have\nread it by now; so maybe \"whorl\" could become a list for discussion\nof the Book of the Short Sun when it is published, to keep messages\nseparate until we all get a chance to read the Book?\n\nSBear." } ] } ] }