{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2382", "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": 2382, "subject": "The mirror crack'd", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2000-09-01T13:23:02+00:00", "last": "2000-09-01T14:06:42+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Tony Ellis", "address": "tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk" }, "date": "2000-09-01T14:06:42+00:00", "subject": "(urth) The mirror crack'd", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Nigel Price wrote:\nThis is a story that I would like to discuss… The boy in \"And when they\nappear\" has the chance to escape by hiding in the freezer… but\nfails to do the sensible thing…" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Ah, but does he? The sanctuary that House offers the boy has its dark\nside. He’s a prisoner. He has no contact with other human beings or with\nthe outside world. We’re repeatedly that he wants “real things”, and who\ncan blame him, but all he’s got are holograms. Shadows. Can you say “The\nLady of Shallot?”\n\nHouse, no doubt with the best motives in the world, doesn’t want its\nlittle boy to grow up and leave home. Doesn’t it strike you as just a\nteensy bit suggestive that House wants to ‘save’ the boy in a deep\nfreeze? With the preserved bodies of his parents?\n\nSuppose he did hide in the freezer. Would he ever have been able to open\nthat great heavy door again? Wouldn’t he find, if he did, that he was\nentombed under the rubble of the collapsed house?\n\nAs upsetting as the story’s ending is, at least it ends with the boy\nstill alive. The hideous Anti-Claus he’s shacked-up with isn’t the sort\nof human contact any of us would wish for him, but at least he’s out in\nthe real world now. He’s escaped one gaoler, he can escape another.\n\nOne more thing. I may be reading too much into this, but:\n\nAt the start of the story, we’re carefully primed with the information\nthat Mouse has a small but deadly built-in blade. Background colour, or\nCheckov’s Gun? At the end of the story, Mouse is under the boy’s pillow,\nthe place traditionally reserved for weapons to fend off attacks in the\nnight." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Tony Ellis\nOn-line Editor, PC Format magazine\n01225 442244 x2349\nhttp://www.pcformat.co.uk" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "James Jordan", "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net" }, "date": "2000-09-01T13:23:02+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) The mirror crack'd", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "----- Original Message -----" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: \"Tony Ellis\" >\nHouse, no doubt with the best motives in the world, doesn't want its\nlittle boy to grow up and leave home. Doesn't it strike you as just a\nteensy bit suggestive that House wants to 'save' the boy in a deep\nfreeze? With the preserved bodies of his parents?\n\nSuppose he did hide in the freezer. Would he ever have been able to open\nthat great heavy door again? Wouldn't he find, if he did, that he was\nentombed under the rubble of the collapsed house?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Two really good points. Thanx." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "As upsetting as the story's ending is, at least it ends with the boy\nstill alive. The hideous Anti-Claus he's shacked-up with isn't the sort\nof human contact any of us would wish for him, but at least he's out in\nthe real world now. He's escaped one gaoler, he can escape another." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Awww. You beat me to it, but I was going to write Anti-Santa!" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "One more thing. I may be reading too much into this, but:\n\nAt the start of the story, we're carefully primed with the information\nthat Mouse has a small but deadly built-in blade. Background colour, or\nCheckov's Gun? At the end of the story, Mouse is under the boy's pillow,\nthe place traditionally reserved for weapons to fend off attacks in the\nnight." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "One more from me. A variety of bad as well as good characters are generated\nby House, and one of them is Jesus. Moving into the real world means they\nboy can meet Jesus as well as bad characters.\n\nJBJordan" } ] } ] }