{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1894",
    "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": 1894,
    "subject": "Inire's \"Mirrors\"",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-11-01T22:02:42+00:00",
    "last": "1999-11-02T02:10:11+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0335@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Nicholas Gevers",
        "address": "vermoulian at yahoo.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-11-01T22:02:42+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Inire's \"Mirrors\"",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I'm glad to see that my \"Fairy Tale Logic\" posting\nended our dry patch; I'm also gratified that mantis\nagrees with me in part, a rare event. But to take up\nthe cudgel again: I still contend that Inire's\ndescription of the working of his mirrors is\nintentional gibberish on Wolfe's part, to the extent\nthat he wishes it to be read as gibberish, in contrast\nwith all the intended-to-be-plausible explanations of\nFTL technology in SF. An ideas-driven writer like Poul\nAnderson or Isaac Asimov desires his FTL conception to\nbe believed, to be given the benefit of a very large\ndoubt; but for a style-driven writer like Jack Vance\nor Wolfe, an FTL-exposition is a CONCEIT, a rhetorical\ncontrivance, serving a metaphorical or humorous\npurpose. Inire's mirrors should be interrogated on\nthat basis. \n\nIncidentally, in defense of mantis' view of Typhon as\nalchemical symbol: the point of alchemy for many was\nthe conversion of their base flesh into perfect matter\nblessed with immortality. Typhon's aim in usurping\nPiaton's body is also extended life.\n\n\n====="
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0336@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Roy C. Lackey",
        "address": "rclackey at stic.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-11-02T02:10:11+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Inire's \"Mirrors\"",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0028-0335@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Nicholas Gevers wrote:\nI'm glad to see that my \"Fairy Tale Logic\" posting"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "ended our dry patch; I'm also gratified that mantis\nagrees with me in part, a rare event. But to take up\nthe cudgel again: I still contend that Inire's\ndescription of the working of his mirrors is\nintentional gibberish on Wolfe's part, to the extent\nthat he wishes it to be read as gibberish, in contrast\nwith all the intended-to-be-plausible explanations of\nFTL technology in SF. An ideas-driven writer like Poul\nAnderson or Isaac Asimov desires his FTL conception to\nbe believed, to be given the benefit of a very large\ndoubt; but for a style-driven writer like Jack Vance\nor Wolfe, an FTL-exposition is a CONCEIT, a rhetorical\ncontrivance, serving a metaphorical or humorous\npurpose. Inire's mirrors should be interrogated on that basis. <<\n\n    To say nothing of the \"white fountain\". I would like to see the\nscientific explanation for the mating of a man and a larval \"angel\"\nproducing an extra-universal remedy for a black hole in a dying sun.\n\nRoy"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}