{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1652",
    "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": 1652,
    "subject": "Digest urth.v027.n009",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-05-31T10:23:19+00:00",
    "last": "1999-05-31T17:13:32+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0027-0034@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Parmenter",
        "address": "dan at lec.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-05-31T10:23:19+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v027.n009",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: \"Mark Millman\" <Mark_Millman at hmco.com>\n\" . . . when I was . . . a boy,\" says Jonas,\nwhose father was a craftsman.\n\nPoor Pinocchio!  He's a puppet again!\n\nMark Millman"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Mantis and I speculated that Jonas is a literary combination of\nPinnochio (robot that becomes human) and the Steadfast Tin Soldier\n(Jonas relates to Jolenta because he thinks they're in the same\ncondition, as when the STS sees the toy ballerina with her leg in the\nair and thinks she's missing a leg).  The Jonas/Pinnochio thing is\nemphasized by the Jonas = Jonah (a guy in a whale, just like\nPinnochio).  I've also wondered whether Wolfe ever saw Osamu Tezuka's\nASTRO BOY about a little robot boy who wants to be human.\n\nBTW, have I ever mentioned that Jonas is probably my favorite\ncharacter in the series?  He's easily the most down-to-earth, despite\nhis own hassles.\n\nLex Shellac"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0027-0035@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mark Millman",
        "address": "mark_millman at hmco.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-05-31T17:13:32+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v027.n009",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0027-0034@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "On Monday 31 May 1999 at 5:23 pm GMT, Dan Parmenter wrote:\n\" . . . when I was . . . a boy,\" says Jonas,\nwhose father was a craftsman.\n\nPoor Pinocchio!  He's a puppet again!\n\nMark Millman"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Mantis and I speculated that Jonas is a literary\ncombination of Pinnochio (robot that becomes\nhuman) and the Steadfast Tin Soldier (Jonas\nrelates to Jolenta because he thinks they're in\nthe same condition, as when the STS sees the\ntoy ballerina with her leg in the air and thinks\nshe's missing a leg).  The Jonas/Pinnochio\nthing is emphasized by the Jonas = Jonah (a\nguy in a whale, just like Pinnochio).  I've also\nwondered  > whether Wolfe ever saw Osamu\nTezuka's ASTRO BOY about a little robot boy\nwho wants to be human.\n\nBTW, have I ever mentioned that Jonas is\nprobably my favorite character in the series?\nHe's easily the most down-to-earth, despite\nhis own hassles.\n\nLex Shellac"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Yes, I remember your discussion well, and was referring to it.\n\nI'm not sure that Wolfe intended this, but I'm choosing to interpret\nJonas' phrasing here as being an indication that he feels that he\nactually was closer to the human state (an enlightened robot?)\nwhen he was whole, and that he's suffered a certain fall from this\nprevious state due to his need to repair himself with human parts.\n\nI wonder, by the way (and I don't recall whether we've discussed\nthis before) whether Jonas' distress mightn't be exacerbated\nbecause he used more human spare parts than was strictly\nnecessary, in an attempt to pass more easily among the low-tech\ninhabitants of Urth.  It's possible that his head wasn't badly (if at\nall) damaged, and that he's simply using a human face as camou-\nflage.  I realize that this raises questions, among others, of whether\na robot's designer would put the CPU in its head or its torso, but\nassuming Jonas' is in his head, his continued existence would\nargue that his head couldn't have been very badly damaged.\nSeverian's speculation on Jonas' habit of speech, in which he\nwonders whether it hadn't been deliberately placed there to make\npeople feel at ease when looking into \"a face of metal and glass\"\n(actually, I don't remember whether it was \"metal\" or \"steel\"), does\nsuggest that Jonas might have had the same thought when he\nrepaired himself.  Voila, Pinocchio lies (in a very big way), turns\nonce again into a puppet, and must struggle to regain his humanity.\n\nMark Millman"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}