{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2458",
    "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": 2458,
    "subject": "VRT Take III",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2000-11-12T20:36:08+00:00",
    "last": "2000-11-13T10:09:58+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0114@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes",
        "address": "ddanehy at siebel.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-11-12T20:36:08+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) VRT Take III",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "M. Borski a ecrit:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Terran anthropologist John Marsch has allegedly splashed down at\nRoncevaux on Sainte Anne. This argues for a document trail which\nthe authorities could easily follow up on. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Mildly intoned: It does indeed argue for a document trail upon which \nthe Annese authorities could easily check. However, \"John V. Marsch\"\nis a prisoner of the St Croix authorities, and, given the apparent\npolitical situation between the sister worlds, for them to check up \non this paper trail (while I doubt not that they could, in a pinch, \ndo so) would be rather less easy. At any rate, in the questionings\nof \"Marsch,\" it seems clear that his interrogators do not believe \nthat he is of Earth origin (in which disbelief they are, of course, \ncorrect). Less clear but palpable: They also do not suspect him of\nbeing an abo; they think he is a spy of the (human) Annese government.\nPlausible conclusions: (1) they do not in fact have reliable \ninformation as to whether a Terrestrial anthropologist named \"John \n(V.) Marsch\" did or did not splash down at Roncevaux; (2) they do,\nbut believe the \"John Marsch\" in their hands to be an Annese spy\nwho took Marsch's identity."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "As for \"'A Story,'\" as I've argued before, it's probably been\nwritten during VRT's incarceration on Saint Croix (Victor makes\nreference to his prison writings), and the intromitted \"V\" may be\nhis own personal idea--a further subsuming of the Marsch personna\nby appending his own first initial as John Marsch's middle initial. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Certainly possible. And I agree that \"A Story\" is most likely a\n\"prison writing.\" I simply observe & maintain that the presence of\nthe quotation marks is ... odd ... and indicative. Of something."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Also: do not forget that the detail about 'John' being the name of\nevery abo boy is provided by VRT himself, writing as John Marsch. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "!!! Very good point."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "It may not be true, or more likely may be yet another attempt,\neither consciously or subconsciously, at linking his identity with\nthe Earthborn anthropologist."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I guess the question then is: Should we consider \"A Story\" as having\n_any_ truth-value whatsoever? If so, why?\n\n--Dan'l"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0115@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Peter Westlake",
        "address": "peter at harlequin.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "2000-11-13T10:09:58+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) VRT Take III",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0030-0114@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 20:36 2000-11-12 -0800, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:\nM. Borski a ecrit:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "..."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Also: do not forget that the detail about 'John' being the name of\nevery abo boy is provided by VRT himself, writing as John Marsch. "
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "!!! Very good point."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "It may not be true, or more likely may be yet another attempt,\neither consciously or subconsciously, at linking his identity with\nthe Earthborn anthropologist."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I guess the question then is: Should we consider \"A Story\" as having\n_any_ truth-value whatsoever? If so, why?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Compare M. Million's lesson in which he asks No. 5 and David about\nthe supposed abo artifacts. David argues that the artifacts were not\nimportant in the lives of the abos compared to their religion and\nculture, and appears to make up some examples - but those examples\nagree in every detail with the descriptions in \"A Story\"! The trees\nare there, and the flails made of sea-shells, and everything. This\nis astonishing whether \"A Story\" is true or not - if not, how did\nMarsch pick up those ex tempore bits of colour from David's lesson,\nand if so, how could David possibly have known them?\n\nSpectacled Bear.\n\n(I'll read _Peace_ soon, honest...)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}