{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1928",
    "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": 1928,
    "subject": "UOTNS",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 3,
    "first": "1999-11-06T07:03:49+00:00",
    "last": "1999-11-07T14:13:39+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0402@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Nicholas Gevers",
        "address": "vermoulian at yahoo.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-11-06T07:03:49+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) UOTNS",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Re the necessity of URTH as a coda to TBOTNS: I\npersonally see THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN as Wolfe's best\nsingle book, both for its rich eclecticism of focus\nand its superb flights of poetic language. To me, it\ncompletes and transcends THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN; in\nfact, I've at times thought of it as the best SF novel\never written. This may seem extravagant praise, but\nwhat other work of SF has come so close to the\nintensity of writers like Joyce? \nMaybe I'm using the wrong criteria...\n\n\n====="
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0411@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "akt at attglobal.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-11-06T22:21:32+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) UOTNS",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0028-0402@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Nicholas=20Gevers?= <vermoulian at yahoo.com>"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Re the necessity of URTH as a coda to TBOTNS: I\npersonally see THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN as Wolfe's best\nsingle book, both for its rich eclecticism of focus\nand its superb flights of poetic language. To me, it\ncompletes and transcends THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN; in\nfact, I've at times thought of it as the best SF novel\never written. This may seem extravagant praise, but\nwhat other work of SF has come so close to the\nintensity of writers like Joyce?\nMaybe I'm using the wrong criteria..."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I agree here. I have never understood the hostility toward this book. It\nseems radiant to me, a truly beautiful, immortal book and entirely necessary\nto the series. Tzad is wonderful, Juturna is wonderful, the connection with\nApheta may be strange and even distasteful to some, but there is magic in\nit. The descriptions of the leaps among the sails of the starship are\nunrivaled, except by perhaps some of  Cordwainer Smith. The legend is that\nit was written at the express order of Dave Hartwell, who said that the\nseries was too truncated and confusing without a wrap-up. If that is true\n(and I have my doubts), hooray for Hartwell.\n\n-alga"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0415@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Kevin J. Maroney",
        "address": "kmaroney at crossover.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-11-07T14:13:39+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) UOTNS",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0028-0411@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 10:21 PM 11/6/99 -0500, alga wrote:\nThe legend is that [_Urth of the New Sun_]\nit was written at the express order of Dave Hartwell, who said that the\nseries was too truncated and confusing without a wrap-up. If that is true\n(and I have my doubts), hooray for Hartwell."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I asked David Hartwell about this a few months ago, and meant to report\nhere. Here's his version:\n\nDavid, John Douglas (then Hartwell's assistant editor at Timescape) and\nWolfe were dining together to discuss _Citadel of the Autarch_, which Wolfe\nhad just delivered to them. Both David and John agreed that the book was a\ntriumph, but that they felt that it really should show, on camera, the\nceremony in which Severian became Autarch. Wolfe, in Hartwell's terms,\nimmediately started adding up words like a calculator, and then declared\nthat he'd be delighted to show it, but that it would take an additional\n50,000-100,000 words to do justice. \n\nAll agreed that adding this much material to _Citadel_ would be\nproblematic, and on the spot they agreed that it should be an additional\nnovel. \n\nSo _Urth_ was written at David (and John's) suggestion. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "   Kevin Maroney | Crossover Technologies \n   kmaroney at crossover.com | (212) 777-1190"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}