{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2165", "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": 2165, "subject": "The Beautiful Ones, They Always Hurt U", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2000-03-26T13:19:00+00:00", "last": "2000-03-28T04:32:17+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Talarican", "address": "exultnttalarican at mindspring.com" }, "date": "2000-03-26T13:19:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) The Beautiful Ones, They Always Hurt U", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "or, Revenge of the Annese\n\nI take it \"No Planets Strike\" plays off the old legend that the animals\npresent in the stable during the Nativity were briefly gifted with speech.\n\nWhat struck me in \"No Planets Strike\" was what a wimpy galactic authority\nseems to be operating. A (shapechanging!) people who use swords they can't\neven make, but must obtain in trade, imprison spacegoing humans on their\nplanet and torture them if they misbehave, and the humans cower in their\nstarships and do nothing about it? (and keep selling them swords?!)\n\nYou can tell this isn't Typhon's empire, for sure. Typhon would send a squad\nof chem soldiers with slug guns, or an erentarus of fusiliers, to Sidhe to\nkick Beautiful butt and take Beautiful names.\n\nIt's as though the humans were ruled and protected by a United Federation of\nPlanets which not only has a Prime Directive, but actually takes it\nseriously (unlike in Star Trek). Or, maybe the attraction of the Beautiful\nOnes is so irrestistible as to overcome the threat of military force (but\nchem soldiers?...)\n\nI wonder what the point of the Beautiful Ones' prohibition on human\nreproduction was? It seems more a parallel with the Sojourn in Egypt than\nthe Slaughter of the Innocents. Better yet, how is it implemented? Are the\nhumans forbidden to, um, make babies, or are any who are born kidnapped? The\nname \"Sidhe\" seems to imply a connection with the Celtic tutelary beings\nnotorious for child-snatching. What do they do with the children they take?\nAnd surely they don't substitute a \"changeling\" of their own for it.\n\nAnd that miraculous child is supposed to save them? Wonder how?" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Endy", "address": "endymion9 at mindspring.com" }, "date": "2000-03-28T04:32:17+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re:The Beautiful Ones, They Always Hurt U", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "On Sun, 26 Mar 2000\n \"Talarican\" scribed" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "or, Revenge of the Annese" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I take it \"No Planets Strike\" plays off the old legend that the animals\npresent in the stable during the Nativity were briefly gifted with speech." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Wonder how that legend arose anyway?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "What struck me in \"No Planets Strike\" was what a wimpy galactic authority\nseems to be operating. A (shapechanging!) people who use swords they can't\neven make, but must obtain in trade, imprison spacegoing humans on their\nplanet and torture them if they misbehave, and the humans cower in their\nstarships and do nothing about it? (and keep selling them swords?!)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "They want to stay alive and not be tortured." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "You can tell this isn't Typhon's empire, for sure. Typhon would send a squad\nof chem soldiers with slug guns, or an erentarus of fusiliers, to Sidhe to\nkick Beautiful butt and take Beautiful names." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It was my understanding that no one was ever allowed to leave so Typhon or anyone else wouldn't know what the Beautiful Ones were doing. It was a sleepy backwater planet that got few visitors who no one ever saw again. Probably not worth Typhon's time if he did know about it. I would expect it to be quarantined rather than attacked." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "It's as though the humans were ruled and protected by a United Federation of\nPlanets which not only has a Prime Directive, but actually takes it\nseriously (unlike in Star Trek). Or, maybe the attraction of the Beautiful\nOnes is so irrestistible as to overcome the threat of military force (but\nchem soldiers?...)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I wonder what the point of the Beautiful Ones' prohibition on human\nreproduction was? It seems more a parallel with the Sojourn in Egypt than\nthe Slaughter of the Innocents. Better yet, how is it implemented? Are the\nhumans forbidden to, um, make babies, or are any who are born kidnapped? The\nname \"Sidhe\" seems to imply a connection with the Celtic tutelary beings\nnotorious for child-snatching. What do they do with the children they take?\nAnd surely they don't substitute a \"changeling\" of their own for it." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Good questions, I wonder too." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "And that miraculous child is supposed to save them? Wonder how?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Letting other's know what is happening on the planet?\n\n\n\nDennis/Endy\nhttp://home.mindspring.com/~endymion9/index.htm" } ] } ] }