{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2202",
    "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": 2202,
    "subject": "Death's Sentence",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2000-04-20T15:13:00+00:00",
    "last": "2000-04-21T23:22:40+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0923@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Tony Ellis",
        "address": "tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "2000-04-20T15:13:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Death's Sentence",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Rostrum wrote:\nBut then Dr. Death's statement makes no sense.  No matter how many times\nwe read the story, Tackman will never be a minute older than he was at the\nend of Death's sentence (heh, accidental double entendre there)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "<g> but...\n...you're assuming Tackman has no life outside the story on the page.\nI'm not sure that GW does. As I've said, this is a story about stories:\nWolfe's written a few of those, and most of them include the idea that,\nat some level, stories have a life of their own.\n\nPersonally I don't see how Dr. Death's statement makes any sense\n-except- the way I've always interpreted it. Apart from anything else,\nit's the custom to end short stories with something of a twist or a\nshock - which we get by this sudden shift in perspective. All this time\nwe've been treating poor Tackman as \"real\" in the sense in which we see\nall fictional protagonists as real, temporarily suspending our\ndisbelief. Now we realise that he's ultimately no more \"real\" than the\ncharacters in the pulp novel.\n\nI suspect that this is the significance of Tackman writing his name in\nthe sand at the start of the story, too."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0926@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Adam Stephanides",
        "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net"
      },
      "date": "2000-04-21T23:22:40+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Death's sentence",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0028-0923@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Here's my take on the meaning of Dr. Death's closing words.  Just as\nRansom will temporarily destroy Dr. Death and escape the island, but\nwill relive his ordeal every time Tackman rereads the story, so\nTackman's escape at the end of the story from his damaging home life is\nonly temporary.  When his mother recovers, he will be sent back to her\nand she will continue neglecting him and exposing him to her lovers and\nher drug-filled parties.\n\nI don't deny that there are overtones of Tackman's fictionality, but I\ndon't think that's the primary meaning.\n\n--Adam"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}