{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1690", "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": 1690, "subject": "Eyeflash/Sugarland", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1999-06-16T13:27:04+00:00", "last": "1999-06-23T00:15:01+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Clifford Drane", "address": "dranec at hotmail.com" }, "date": "1999-06-16T13:27:04+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Eyeflash/Sugarland", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thanks to Ranjit for the offline pointer to the searchable archives.\n\nMr. Ansley, I did read your wonderful posts about 'The Eyeflash Miracles'. \nYou did a good job of pointing out the links between the two stories. I \nthink further exploration about *why* the links are there at all is in \norder. Perhaps we'll find that it's just a little fun two-headed story that \nWolfe whipped up.\n\nThere are two possibilities I can immediately think of for the Oz references \n- 1) Oz is an actual alternate reality of which Little Tib is a doorway, or \n2) Tib's powers simply conjure spirits that due to various reasons take the \nform of Oz characters.\n\nRegarding Alice's post: \"But I think Sugarland, in context, is the Big Rock \nCandy Mountain. You know, er, Heaven.\"\n\nTo which Keven responded: \"Nothing in the rules says it can't be both.\"\n\nI think it is most definitely both. Since the experiments conducted on the \nchildren took place in Houston, it is likely that they are still in or \naround Houston. And another cool fact: I live near some train tracks (which \nsplit River Oaks and the Galleria Area) that I think run straight to \nSugarland (actually spelled Sugar Land, home of Tara Lipinski, the lil \nskatin' gal). From now on, whenever I hear that train, I'll be thinking of \nthem. :)\n\nCliff Drane" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1999-06-23T00:15:01+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Eyeflash/Sugarland", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Clifford Drane wrote:\nMr. Ansley, I did read your wonderful posts about 'The Eyeflash Miracles'.\nYou did a good job of pointing out the links between the two stories. I\nthink further exploration about *why* the links are there at all is in\norder. Perhaps we'll find that it's just a little fun two-headed story that\nWolfe whipped up." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "You can call me William, Clifford.\n\nAlthough I put a lot of effort (probably far more than is evident from the\nhaphazard result) into my Ozflash posts, I was doing the easy part compared\nto answering the \"Why?\" question. It is very likely unanswerable, but that\nshouldn't stop us from trying; it never has before.\n\nThere are many other questions I would like to have answered about the\nstory. Here are some:\n\nWhy doesn't Little Tib recognize any of the Oz characters?\n\nWhen is it taking place? Is it our near future, or an alternate history line?\n\nWhere is it taking place? It seems to be the United States, but why is the\ncapital in Niagara? Has the US broken up?\n\nIf it is our time-line, what happened to get us from here to there?\nSomething big seems to have been left out (as usual with Wolfe.)\n\nDid Little Tib's parents really both become government agents?\n\nWas Little Tib's father complicit in his blinding? Little Tib's first dream\nsuggests this.\n\nAnd on and on..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "There are two possibilities I can immediately think of for the Oz references\n- 1) Oz is an actual alternate reality of which Little Tib is a doorway, or\n2) Tib's powers simply conjure spirits that due to various reasons take the\nform of Oz characters." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't think (1) is likely. Little Tib's contacts with Oz are either\nthrough dreams which are (to me at least) obviously dreams (albeit with\nmany Oz elements) and not visits to an alternate reality (unless it is an\nalternate reality that is dream-like in a way that Oz, in Baum's hands at\nleast, never was) or by interacting with a single Oz character in the\n\"real\" world. These Oz beings never talk about being transported from Oz in\nany manner, although they may mention Oz related people, places and things.\n\n(2) fits in with the way I read the story much better. As to why the\n\"spirits\" Little Tib's \"conjures\" up take on the form of Oz characters, I\nstill can't come up with a better answer than my suggestion in my Ozflash\npostings that the Oz images are coming from the mind of Little Tib's\nfather, Big Tib. Of course this leads to another why. Perhaps part of Big\nTib's (subconscious) mind is trying to offer Little Tib a safe hiding place\nor help and the best hiding place and source of help it can come up with is\n(childhood memories of) Oz.\n\nIt is interesting to compare Little Tib's angels with Silk's Enlightenment\nin TBotLS. The angels seems to help Little Tib, but it may well be that\nLittle Tib is actually causing the helpful events to occur, with the angels\nas a guiding rather that effective force. Little Tib may be the help that\nwas sent to him, as well.\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] } ] }