{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2044",
    "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": 2044,
    "subject": "The Ghod and his Typo",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-12-18T16:58:55+00:00",
    "last": "1999-12-18T16:58:55+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0646@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-12-18T16:58:55+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Ghod and his Typo",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "William Ansley wrote:\nSurely you can't believe that the fact that the \"enchanted\" sword in _The\nGod and His Man_ is referred to as \"Master\" instead of \"Maser\" the first\ntwo times it is mentioned is anything but a (particularly annoying) typo."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Step one: even typos have entries, if only to note that they are typos\n(\"Thadelaeus and Thalelaeus\" in AE&2).  Step two: while I agree that a typo\nis involved, unlike your(100-percent)self I'm only ninty-percent certain\nthis is the case (that is, both Master and Maser might be right), and even\ngranting a typo exists, I'm not entirely certain which one is correct.\n\n(Actually, the reasoning probably goes the other way: if I =could= say that\none of the two was definitely wrong, then I would be 100% certain that\nthere was a typo.  Why should I believe Master at all?  Well, as you note,\nit is used twice in a row, the first and second times: as it reads, \"Maser\"\nis the one first suspected as typo.  Also, that the sword is named Master\nfeeds into my Elric sense of the story: it seems like the god really does\nwant the sword to master the man, judging by the endgame; yet the moment\nthe man is his own agent, away from the god, the magical master becomes a\nmere techno-tool.  I hope we can at least agree that \"master/servant\" is a\nlarge part of what the story is about?  Finally, I'm trying to remember the\nimportant case where a seeming typo in a Wolfe work was actually a very\nimportant detail of truth, but in my flu-addled week-weakened state [which\nmay ultimately be the source of all my confusion], all I can think of are\nthe real typos: the ones in EMPIRES OF FOLIAGE AND FLOWER, the ones in the\nEaston Press Edition of SHADOW, the snakes eating hands instead of heads,\nand so on.)\n\nFurther inquiry into the typo question might be rewarded by examining the\nmagazine version--fwiw, I checked both the hardcover and the paperback of\nES.\n\nBut yes, I do know what a maser is (thanks for spelling it out for others\nwho might not); and yes, I also made the azoth connection; and again, azoth\nis a dingus of the Whorl rather than Urth, which sure is odd.\n\nNot that anyone would be expected to know all this--I hadn't elaborated.\n\nWhile Wolfe's work often has a positive attitude toward religion, we all\nknow there are cases much more sinister: \"Alien Stones,\" maybe \"Westwind,\"\nmaybe \"Eyeflash Miracles,\" etc.  \"The God and His Man\" would seem to be in\nthis group.\n(\"Use of a German word\" is also a trait of \"Silhouette\"; factoids-R-us.)\n\nIn relating \"The God and His Man\" to TBOTNS, the closest I can get is the\nTemptation of Severian by Typhon.  Which is dead-on-target--it is just such\na small piece of the big picture that it seems odd to use it as an overture\nfor the whole.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}