{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1558",
    "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": 1558,
    "subject": "fairies, meteors, time travel",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-04-21T10:40:38+00:00",
    "last": "1999-04-21T10:40:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0025-0114@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-04-21T10:40:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) fairies, meteors, time travel",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Re: Yesod, the \"fairie\" mode often works better than the \"angel/devil\" mode\n(of course, it all depends upon the application: if the essay is about a\n=religious= reading, then it really should not be expected to focus upon\nthe fairie or ufo reading).  People generally seem to sense the scary side\nof fairies and/or ufos (when was the last time any ufos did anything\nbenevolent?) and while in that mode can usually avoid the religious\ngood/evil spaghetti mess.\n\nMass extinctions do happen.  We think a big meteor killed off the dinosaurs\n(was it just an accident?  Freud says there are no accidents <g>).  The\ndeath of their world allowed the tree shrew critter to grow and fill vacant\nniches. And humans evolved from there. \"Nature\" doesn't seem to care, just\nso long as there is life; \"Nature\" has/allows all sorts of cruelties.  So\nthe argument could be made that what is being saved on Urth, since it\nobviously isn't all the people, is the ability for life to exist there at\nall--it is all being done for \"Nature.\"  (This could be the \"What's in it\nfor Urth\" side of the bargain.) Of course, there is a breed of fringe\nenvironmentalists depicted in the popular media, people who supposedly\nbelieve that \"Nature\" would be best served by the eradication of all human\nlife.  What I'm suggesting here is something closer to that than is usually\ndiscussed with regard to the Urth Cycle (closer, but not entirely).  This\nis what I was trying to convey with the \"people are krill\" statement--we\ncould also say \"people are leaves on the tree, with the deluge as the short\nwinter, but the ragnarok winter is unending\"; yet that leads to trouble\nthat the krill analogy avoids.\n\nLikewise, there are some people who might believe that if humans only lost\ntheir human brains and lived like animals, that would solve the trouble\nhumans put on \"Nature.\"  If the text supported this view, Severian would\nhave just become a zoantrop.\n\nDifferent tangent: the notion of fixing everything through increased time\ntravel and meddling.  This seems to be the \"Groundhog Day\" mode, where the\ntraveler just keeps going through the same thing over and over until he\ngains enlightenment and is allowed out of the loop.  Rather like a video\ngame, where there is one true path.  In contrast to the \"Back to the\nFuture\" mode, where the traveler just barely manages to get through the\ntime maze by the skin of his teeth; where the traveler understands that in\nhis universe time travel creates new problems, unexpected variables, each\ntime; success, however messy, is hard-won, \"barely made it\" success, and\nnot something to be gambled over in some \"double or nothing\" crap shoot.\n\nWith regard to time travel, hey, somebody probably mentioned this resource\nbefore, but here:\n\nhttp://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/chrono.html\n\nIf people =really= want to get into the time travel mess, it would be very\nhelpful if everybody would use the same vocabulary, starting from the same\nfoundation.  Plus it is a neat site all on its own.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}