{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/217", "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": 217, "subject": "FREE LIVE FREE", "messages": 7, "voices": 5, "first": "1997-09-24T09:47:05+00:00", "last": "1997-09-26T18:37:32+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1997-09-24T11:39:03+00:00", "subject": "(urth) FREE LIVE FREE", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Spoilers ho!\n \nI asked this question a few weeks ago, but perhaps I was so brief that no\none knew what I was talking about.\n \nMr. Free tells the salesman that he hid the device \"under a sign.\" On the\nlast page, after the salesman has retrieved his son and rejoined the\nothers (who seem to have already been \"improved\" by the time machine), the\nsalesman sees the sign, and it seems that Wolfe intends readers to say\n\"Ah-ha! That's what Mr. Free meant.\"\n \nI did not say \"Ah-ha!\" and would like to very much. What is the sign?\nAny help would be received with gratitude.\n \nI really enjoyed this book and found it to be Wolfe's most humorous novel\n(right up there with his robot detective stories, in my book).\n \n-Rostrum" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Bowman", "address": "bvmi at odin.cc.pdx.edu" }, "date": "1997-09-24T09:47:05+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) FREE LIVE FREE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I've got a question on this novel. I've heard the Zeising edition is \ndifferent from the Tor edition. Is this true? And if so, in what way?\n\nMichael Bowman\nbvmi at odin.cc.pdx.edu" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-09-24T20:27:00+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) FREE LIVE FREE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #7562733 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET#\n\nMichael Bowman,\n\nFrom URTH-MAN EXTRAORDINARY:\n\n\"B15. FREE LIVE FREE\n \"Ziesing (hb) 1-8, 12-84, 496pp, $45.00 . . . \"\n \"Tor (hb) 93248-0, 11-85, 403pp, $16.95 . . . \"\n\nTextual Variations\n\n\"P1. FREE LIVE FREE\n \"About 4000 words were dropped from the Zeising edition,\n including one chapter. The order of the other chapters\n was changed slightly and a chronology was added as end\n matter (this latter dropped in the UK editions).\"\n\n=mantis=" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Bowman", "address": "bvmi at odin.cc.pdx.edu" }, "date": "1997-09-24T14:54:18+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) FREE LIVE FREE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Wed, 24 Sep 1997 m.driussi at genie.com wrote:\nReply: Item #7562733 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INTERNET#\n\nTextual Variations\n\n\"P1. FREE LIVE FREE\n \"About 4000 words were dropped from the Zeising edition,\n including one chapter. The order of the other chapters\n was changed slightly and a chronology was added as end\n matter (this latter dropped in the UK editions).\"\n\n=mantis=" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Wow. That's a pretty major difference between editions. It sounds like it \nwould be worthwhile to get ahold of the Ziesing edition. Thanks.\n\nMichael Bowman\nbvmi at odinc.c.pdx.edu" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-09-25T00:59:00+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) FREE LIVE FREE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #9690381 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#\n\nMichael Bowman,\n\nRe: the different editions, from Clute's STROKES:\n\n\"Even the limited edition of the book [FREE LIVE FREE] . . . was so\nclear and compulsive in the telling that it could be read at one long\ngo. Slightly sharpened at points . . . and shorn of the dithery\nChapter 43 of the original version, FREE LIVE FREE now flows with an\nunbroken liquid precision from this world to the last one, from dream\nto a magically-achieved reality\" (p. 162).\n\n=mantis=" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Tony Ellis", "address": "tellis at futurenet.co.uk" }, "date": "1997-09-26T15:31:28+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: FREE LIVE FREE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " RE>FREE LIVE FREE 26/09/97\n\nI've just discovered this list, which looks like a lot of fun. Half my Wolfe books are at my old address, however, so apologies in advance if I'm not the most frequent (or accurate) contributor." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Mr. Free tells the salesman that he hid the device \"under a sign.\" On the\nlast page, after the salesman has retrieved his son and rejoined the\nothers (who seem to have already been \"improved\" by the time machine), the\nsalesman sees the sign, and it seems that Wolfe intends readers to say\n\"Ah-ha! That's what Mr. Free meant.\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It's years since I read this one from cover to cover, but I thought Free specifically said he that hid the device \"in a wall\" (although he certainly spoke of putting it under a sign as well). The way I remember the ending, it is this \"in a wall\" reference that Osgood recalls when he comes across the others, and the \"Ah-ha\" moment is when we realise that this means that the time machine is built into the front door of Free's house. Or am I making a complete fool of myself?\n\nSomebody please put Rostrum and I out of our misery!" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"About 4000 words were dropped from the Zeising edition,\n including one chapter. The order of the other chapters\n was changed slightly and a chronology was added as end\n matter (this latter dropped in the UK editions).\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Could some kind person send this chronology to the Urth-list for the benefit of benighted UK readers like me? I'm satisfied that I \"understand\" Free Live Free, but I never did get Ben Free's to-ing and fro-ing through time completely straightened out in my mind. And anyway, I'm curious.\n\nTony." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Derek Bell", "address": "dbell at maths.tcd.ie" }, "date": "1997-09-26T18:37:32+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: FREE LIVE FREE", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "In message <199709261528.IAA04849 at lists1.best.com>, Tony Ellis writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "It's years since I read this one from cover to cover," }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tSame here." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "The way I remember the ending, it is this \"in a wall\" reference that\nOsgood recalls when he comes across the others, and the \"Ah-ha\"\nmoment is when we realise that this means that the time machine is\nbuilt into the front door of Free's house." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tI don't think you're making a fool of yourself at all; I\nthink Wolfe said somewhere that some people hadn't realised the\nsignificance of some flowers that a character saw through a window. In\nfact, Wolfe implied that the flowers were blooming in the \"wrong\"\nseason, that it's a different season outside the front of the house to\nthe season seen through the window." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Could some kind person send this chronology to the Urth-list for the =\nbenefit of benighted UK readers like me?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\tI agree, provided it does not anger the great god K'op-eeriit.\n\n\tTercel" } ] } ] }