{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/169",
    "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": 169,
    "subject": "Keep the mailing list focused on Gene Wolfe",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-08-20T15:44:12+00:00",
    "last": "1997-08-20T15:44:12+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0004-0256@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan Rabin",
        "address": "danrabin at a.crl.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-08-20T15:44:12+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Keep the mailing list focused on Gene Wolfe",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I for one would prefer that the Urth mailing list remain focused on Gene\nWolfe's work.  That's what I subscribe for.\n\nSince I'm an infrequent contributor, perhaps I should back up my vote with\na proposal for a new Wolfe-centered discussion topic:  Wolfe's craft in the\nsmall.\n\nWe are greatly struck by the quality of Wolfe's ideas and by the way he\nuses them to great effect.  What about the small-scale details of *how* he\ntells his stories?  I have in mind, for example, two occasions in _The Book\nof the New Sun_ on which Severian ends a situation with decisive violence.\n\nFirst, in _Torturer_ at the end of Ch. 14 `Terminus Est', Severian's\ncrushing of the nerve in the peltast's neck is preceded by the reflective\ncommentary `The peltast was relaxed, so there was no great difficulty.'\nThe presence of the word `relaxed' contributes to the calming effect.\nThen--KER-POW--action!\n\nSecond, in _Sword_, at the end of Ch. 26 `The Eyes of the World', we have a\nreversal in the sequence of action and reflection.  This time the\noccurrence of the violence in the paragraph `I struck then,' interrupts\nTyphon's arrogant attempt to swear Severian to his service.  OK, so he\nstruck, but what happened?  The following paragraph, beginning `There is a\nway of smashing the nose with the heel of one's hand...' forms a nice\nlittle disquisition on how Severian killed Typhon, revealing that Severian\nmust have been carrying out the outlined reasoning during the preceding\ndialog with Typhon without telling us.  KER-POW!, and then `Elementary,\nWatson, I simply deduced that to kill a two-headed human you must exploit a\nreflex that can only protect one head.'\n\nDoes anybody else have a favorite example of Wolfe's technique at the\nsentence-and-paragraph level?\n\nBy the way, the flinch reflex seems to be a bit of a favorite with Wolfe.\nHammerstone uses it as an example explaining `standing orders'  to Silk on\np. 223 (hardcover) of _Lake of the Long Sun_ (near the beginning of Ch. 9\n`In Dreams Like Death').\n\n  -- Dan Rabin"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}