{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/184", "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": 184, "subject": "Digest urth.v004.n012", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1997-08-27T16:24:51+00:00", "last": "1997-08-28T10:39:04+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice Turner", "address": "al at ny.playboy.com" }, "date": "1997-08-27T16:24:51+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v004.n012", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Photon,\n\n To me, it seems like this story is set in the same" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"universe\", country and time-frame as \"Seven American Nights\". The beast\ntie-in might NOT then be a hallucination on Nadan's part, but a real event.\n(I thought I'd egg you on about this hallucination vs reality thread.) " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "They're both set in decaying cities, but not, I think the same one, unless\n7AN's D.C. is a lot weirder than I think! All that stuff about the \"meat\"\nbeing half-alive for a white (and thus preserved) is definitely pretty far\nout. Actually, \"Werwolf\" seems to me close in spirit to a horror comic and,\nI suspect, was never meant to be a serious effort. Can't you just see the\nlast frames, with the feral girl chomping away at the leg, with close-ups of\ngore and appropriate sound-effects overheard? \n\nmantis\n\n our first question" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "is: which tale of the 1,001 nights of ANE is being retold here? (Just\nto kick things out of the Judaeo-Christian circuit. )" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't think you should be disappointed if it doesn't follow any of them.\nThe title may have come after the story, after all---it's the sort of title\nthat might have been playfully suggested by an editor or friend hearing a\ndescription of the story (as opposed to many of Wolfe's other titles).\n\nRon (don't you have another name, I seem to remember?--aren't you cephalo?)\n\nDo you have more of that interview with Gordon? Would you consider posting\nsome of it? In her book, she quotes only that one sentence that I posted\n(about the animals).\n\nI thought the weapons and tools in TS were perfectly logical (except for the\nevil staff, of course). A sail-sledge makes sense to me; one could hardly\nuse huskies on this planet! And yes, I did notice that gesture of assent,\ncommon to everyone--but not so familiar to Cutthroat that he doesn't keep\nnoticing it, another proof that he is Not From Here. Why do you think the\nrobots have never been outside? I think they most definitely have, before\nthe planet froze, and that they were put in the big underground warehouse to\nprotect them from the weather.\n\nYou're probably right about the 3 laws of robotics. That's so much a part of\nthe lore, that it will undoubtedly be built into the real thing when we get\nthat far." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Finally, if this is a totem-story (and Wolfe so identifies it in the\nGordon interview), it is surely of significance that Cutthroat begins\nhis sojourn with the Wiggikki (wolves) to whom he bears a physical\nlikeness according to Eggseeker (p. 184) and ends it with one of them" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, don't forget his name (Wolfe's) and the many wolves which turn up here\nand there, including the Wer- variety mentioned above. Also his fondness for\nKipling. And mantis and I both think he did some research in Jack London for\nthis story. I am told by an excellent source that he contemplated doing an\nanthology (by various authors) on wolves.\n\nI'll let mantis take the one about the crooked leg (but must say that here\nFisher King analogies seem a bit steep). But, totem-story or not, interview\nor not, the winged figure at the end of this story is significantly more\nthan a bird, and you will never persuade me otherwise. " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "BTW, I've got several Native American dictionaries coming through\ninterlibrary loan (our library didn't have very much); I'll let you know\nif anything turns up on any names." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Excellent! If you look back over the archive, I've ruled out six or eight.\nHere are two more NOT: Lenape and the various Mohawk dialects (Iroquois,\nKanienkehata). I put in queries about Cree and Blackfoot, no replies yet\n(and maybe never). Here's a thought, though: it might be wise to investigate\nthe Illinois area.\n\n-alga-" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Joshua A. Solomon", "address": "j.solomon at ucl.ac.uk" }, "date": "1997-08-28T10:39:04+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v004.n012", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Alice Turner wrote:\n\nHere's a thought, though: it might be wise to investigate\nthe Illinois area." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Note: Algonquin, Il is just west of Barrington.\n\nbee/wolfe" } ] } ] }