{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2077",
    "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": 2077,
    "subject": "Infrequently Asked Question Answered",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2000-01-19T08:54:57+00:00",
    "last": "2000-01-19T10:26:26+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0704@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David Lebling",
        "address": "dlebling at shore.net"
      },
      "date": "2000-01-19T08:54:57+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Infrequently Asked Question Answered",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: \"Talarican\" <exultnttalarican at mindspring.com>\nIII:XXXIII At Castle Baldanders, when Famulimus and Barbatus set Sev\nstraight regarding their lifespan, Baldanders interjects with \"These\nthings\nlive only a score of years, like dogs\". His tone \"told [Sev] more than is\nwritten here, for each word fell like a stone dropped down some deep\n cistern\". Aside from the contempt obvious in B's choice of words, what\ndid\nhis tone convey to Severian?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "This one at least seems fairly clear.  Baldanders' goal is, on more than one\noccasion, stated to be eternal life.  Famulimus and Barbatus have \"awesome\ncosmic power\" but very short lifespans.  Baldanders thinks they've\ncompletely missed the point.\n\nRecall that there is a certain strain of C. S. Lewis in the hierodules'\nattitudes: Lewis believed (or at least wrote, in _Out of the Silent Planet_)\nthat space colonization and the desire for immortality were sins.\nBaldanders embodies one of these sins, Typhon both; the cacogens neither.\nTheir humility is certainly presented as a positive thing, contrasting with\nBaldanders' creepy Dr. Frankenstein-ish experiments (not unlike those in\n_That Hideous Strength_) and later, Typhon's equally nasty attempt at\neternal life.\n\nHave you ever noticed that none of Wolfe's space colonies seem to be very\nhappy places?\n(Then again, I suppose none of Wolfe's _places_ seem to be very happy.)\n\n    Dave Lebling\n    (aka vizcacha)"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0706@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Straight",
        "address": "straight at email.unc.edu"
      },
      "date": "2000-01-19T10:26:26+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Infrequently Asked Question Answered",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0028-0704@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On Wed, 19 Jan 2000, David Lebling wrote:\nRecall that there is a certain strain of C. S. Lewis in the hierodules'\nattitudes: Lewis believed (or at least wrote, in _Out of the Silent Planet_)\nthat space colonization and the desire for immortality were sins."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I don't think Lewis thought colonization and immortality were themselves\nsinful.  It would be more accurate to say he thought either one would be\ndisasterous because of sin's corruption of humanity.  To colonize the\nuniverse would be to spread corruption to possibly untainted planets.  \nAnd since death provides a chronological limit to how bad a person can\nbecome, immortality would make it possible for someone to become more and\nmore evil forever.\n\n-Rostrum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}