{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2426",
    "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": 2426,
    "subject": "PEACE: Is there a doctor in the house? If not, where?",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-10-27T08:54:48+00:00",
    "last": "2000-10-27T08:54:48+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0065@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes",
        "address": "ddanehy at siebel.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-10-27T08:54:48+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) PEACE: Is there a doctor in the house? If not, where?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "More and more I think that a lot of the problems of PEACE may be \nresolved by abandoning chronology entirely at a certain level:\nspecifically, by presuming (as I suggested briefly in my longish\npost on \"PEACE, love, and understanding) that W. is not merely\nmeandering over his life but _guided_ through it by beings seeking \nto bring him to \"peace,\" salvation, or whatever.\n\nThese beings are (primarily, at least) represented by the Drs.\nVan Ness and Black, whom W. visits \"though dead.\" As noted, any \nattempt to assign chronology to these visits breaks down. \n\nThere's a strongish hint that Dr. Van Ness is _not_ a figment \ncreated by W. to \"consult\" at his will. Consider this sequence:\n\n\t   \"You promised me, Mr. Weer, that if I would prescribe\n\tfor your stroke you would cooperate with me -- take \n\tcertain tests.\"\n\t   \"I had forgotten all about you. I thought you were\n\tgone.\"\n\n\t\t [following which Dr. V. has W. play with mirrors\n\t\t to check the accuracy of his self-image. But note\n\t\t that Dr. V. speaks not of W's \"somatic\" body \n\t\t parts but of his \"psychosomic body areas.\"]\n\n\t   \"...Your image of each of the psychosomic body areas\n\tis perfect; in other words your I.D.R. is zero. I would\n\tsay this indicates a very high level of self-concern.\"\n\t   \"You mean that's how I look?\"\n\t   \"Yes, that's exactly how you look. Frightening, isn't\n\tit?\"\n\n\t\t[!!! This is a \"psychosomic\" body -- and its\n\t\t accurate appearance is \"frightening?\" H'mmmm.\n\t\t Finally, a little further along:]\n\n\t   \"You know, all I really wanted from you was advice\n\tabout the effect of exercise on my stroke. I've got\n\tthat, and now I really should wipe you out.\"\n\t   \"Do you really think that you could do that, Mr.\n\tWeer?\"\n\t   \"Of course...\"\n\t\t\t\t[pp. 36-7, Berkley PB]\n\nConsider, too, Dr. Van Ness' lack of response to the idea that \nSherry Gold, who is in the next room, is dead:\n\n\t   \"...I woke up like this. It was the morning after \n\tSherry Gold died.\"\n\t   \"Miss Gold?\" The doctor's head makes an uninten-\n\ttional and almost imperceptible movement towrads the\n\tpartition that separates us. I wonder if the girl is\n\tlistening; I hope not. [pp. 14-15]\n\nLet's be clear: I'm suggesting that Dr. Van Ness, not at all\na creation of W's memory/imagination, is a psychopomp, guiding\nWeer in some way to (if not through) the memories he must deal\nwith. He has other patients, including those in the waiting\nroom (itself a pregnant image) with its achronic magazines.\nIn fact, whether Wolfe consciously thought it or not when he\nwrote PEACE, I'm suggesting that Dr. Van Ness is, if not Jesus\nChrist, then at least an agent thereof -- an angelic being, or\none of the blessed dead, whose \"prayers accomplish much.\"\n\nOne last pair of bits suggest very strongly indeed that it is a\npsychic body we're talking about:\n\n\t   I stand straight and six feet tall, a fine figure\n\tof a man, though twenty (Dr. Van Ness will say thirty)\n\tpounds overweight. [3]\n\nBut what Dr. Van Ness actually says on the subject is:\n\n\t   \"You are thin, Mr. Weer. Underweight.\" [11]\n\n...and this is the guy whose \"image of each of the psychosomic \nbody areas is perfect.\" H'mmm.\n\nWell. Have a most excellent weekend, everyone."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}