{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2428",
    "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": 2428,
    "subject": "PEACE frametale",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-10-27T13:57:02+00:00",
    "last": "2000-10-27T13:57:02+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0070@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-10-27T13:57:02+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) PEACE frametale",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Roy quoted & wrote:\nmantis wrote:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "This brings up many good points.  It also seems like an opportunity to\nraise the \"one stroke or two medical emergencies?\" tangle."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Wouldn't you know it; I just happened to have a piece more or less prepared\non this topic! Unfortunately, it repeats some of the points mentioned by\nmantis, but I'm too lazy to change it."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Ah, didn't mean to get in your way there--and oh, look, you've done me one\nbetter by writing (more or less; or maybe more, actually!) what I was going\nto say about the frametale.\n\nSo, about the frametale . . what Roy said.\n\nMy only additions/quibbles would be about the dead eating and otherwise\nacting as if they were alive.  This is the way the dead are portrayed in\nclassical mythology (remember how the hero has to feed 'em some blood so\nthey can get enough strength/obligation to talk), and Gene Wolfe has used\nexactly this example in many cases (Earth goddess feeding on human\nsacrifice in the Soldier book, for example).\n\nSo there is precedent for ghosts eating.\n\nI would also like to say that I have some questions about that initial\nroom, the glassed-in porch with fireplace, brick walls, and flagstones on\nthe floor.  Is it a normal room or a memory room?  (John Weer's house and\nMr. Eliot's house are wood; Olivia's house is, or has, brick.  The room\nalmost seems like something from the Lorns' farm.)  It seems like a normal\nroom, but what sort of a room is it?  It almost seems like a hunting lodge\n(which leads into the Den's daddy thicket).  The windows look out onto the\ngarden, and three doors (opposite the windows?) lead to Dining Room,\nKitchen, and Den\n\nBut it is the presence of the axe that rings the bells for me.  The room is\nlocated at the back of the mansion (the foyer based upon a child's-view of\nBlaine's foyer is located in the front: the rooms are not chronological in\nthat regard).  Den is at the outer edge of the mansion, and there's the axe\nhe keeps talking about, and he spends an amount of time lingering in the\nvicinity of the garden and the one room before he starts wandering further\nin.\n\n\"The House of the Axe\" is the literal translation of Labyrinth, iirc.  So\nWolfe is signaling that Den is at the entrance to a maze . . . well,\n=obviously= . . . and Wolfe also has a track-record of mixing up Daedelus\n(labyrinth maker) with Minotaur (labyrinth monster/inhabitant) with Theseus\n(labyrinth visitor)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Roy wrote:\nThis scene, I believe, is a reenactment of one which occurred at his real\noffice, the day that Dan French told him the Sidhe story and Miss Birkhead\ndied. He suffered a stroke/heart attack, which brought him real-life pain.\nHe fears Miss Birkhead answering the buzzer instead of Miss Hadow, because\nhe had just learned that Miss Birkhead was dead. If she answered--then he\nmust be dead, too."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I agree.  The day of reporter/Dan French/Miss Birkhead death is also Den's\nlast day alive (presumably Den's age 60+); the gap between this day and the\n\"previous\" day (Bill Batton/Eleanor Bold/Charlie Turner; Den's age 49;\nwhich almost seems like the same day) may be as short as a few months (if\nthe letter is just received that day) or many years (if Den is re-examining\nthe letter rather than reading it the first time).\n\nDoris Corner:\nSince Den was going to show the photo of Doris to Miss Birkhead, we can\nassume (?) that she wouldn't recognize Doris (so Doris isn't Birkhead's\nbaby, for example; nor was Birkhead the fairy godmother who tried to help\nDoris).  When things are this muddled, it is nice to check someone off the\nlist.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}