{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2449",
    "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": 2449,
    "subject": "PEACE: 1920 timeline, last time",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-11-08T09:08:39+00:00",
    "last": "2000-11-08T09:08:39+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0103@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-11-08T09:08:39+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) PEACE: 1920 timeline, last time",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "One last neat thing about the timeline that sets Den's birth-year at 1920\n(and thus validates the \"Liberty\" magazine in Dr. B's office): it makes the\nYear of the Egg take place in 1929, riding exhilaratingly close to the\nmarket crash.\n\nI like this, because it makes the \"high stakes\" and lunacy of the whole Egg\nMania (and the lifestyles of all those we see) rather like a micro-view of\nthe entire country on the very verge of economic collapse and Great\nDepression.  It also lends a great deal of urgent energy to Ricepie's\nhand-wringing about the bank, and Blaine's hamfisting about the same.\n\nThese trace-but-delightful details are lost if the Year of the Egg is 1925.\n\nWell, five years of difference, what does it matter?  Can't we keep 1920\nand have everything else work out along the EZ timeline? (Aside from 1938\nbeing a few years younger for Den, that is.)\n\nThe answer is no.\n\nAGE--Event\n 4   sees Dr. Black; \"Liberty\" magazine\n 5   THE BLACK YEAR\n 6   GRANDFATHER CHRISTMAS\n 9   THE YEAR OF THE EGG\n10   Olivia marries Julius Smart (should be \"THE CHEMICAL WEDDING\"?)\n13   Den's parents return from Europe\n17?  Den tells Margaret tale of Tilly\n20   College junior; buys first car; Olivia dies?\n22   employed at factory as engineer\n24   cold house prank\n25   Chinese Garden dream (Olivia dies? Peacock dies?)\n~40   poor man; FURTHER DECLINE; GOLD HUNT\n~50   rich man; GOLDEN YEAR\n~60   dead man <g>\n360   author <G>\n\nThe answer is \"no\" because we want \"GOLD HUNT = 1954; Den = 40\"; this\nrequires Den's birth year be moved back to 1914.\n\nAdam, you wrote about Den's career and his sense of chance.  Right, there's\nthat; but there's also the stuff he is ignoring, like the cold house prank.\nHe is responsible (although the \"whys\" get more tricky, imho, if he is a 24\nyear old engineer rather than an 18 year old summer worker), he should be\nfired, but he's Julius's nephew, so he isn't fired; he should advance\nthrough his years at the plant, but there's that black mark, so he doesn't\nadvance; he is frozen (just like the fellow who died).\n\nThe prank was more than a stupid mistake. It was murderous, and Den had\nplenty of time to fix it (i.e., unlock door, run like hell), but he didn't.\n\nMore about the prank: a prank among equals is one thing, a prank from an\nengineer to a laborer seems more abusive to me.  I can see how an engineer\nwould spend some time in the cold house, doing one thing or another; how he\nmight become acquainted with workers there, with friendship growing to the\npoint where pranks can happen.  Maybe I'm imagining too much distance\nbetween entry-level engineer and cold house worker in a new-ish factory in\nthe late '30s.\n\nWas the victim just an unknown, or was he somehow somebody that Den wanted\nrevenge upon?  Even in the sense that Den pushed Bobby to protect Joe.\n\nWhy the prank, anyway?  Emotional tangle around that age: Olivia died; Den\ndidn't marry Margaret . . .\n\n(The Chinese Garden dream is clearly founded upon Olivia's death, and\nmetaphorically speaking, it takes place inside her head--that is, Den is\nwalking in there.  He says he is 25 years old, which makes it seem as\nthough Olivia dies when Den is 25.  Then again, it is more about Den coming\nto terms with her death, completing the process of mourning . . . so maybe\nthe Chinese Garden dream has to do with the death of Peacock, killer of\nOlivia: this allows Den to finally accept Olivia's death, find peace with\nit . . . or maybe it was just five years of less dramatic mourning that\nfinally did it . . .)\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}