{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2500",
    "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": 2500,
    "subject": "Interpretation and aesthetics (was Re: (urth) PEACE: is Weer's biography knowable? (long))",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-12-09T12:08:41+00:00",
    "last": "2000-12-09T12:08:41+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0187@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Adam Stephanides",
        "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net"
      },
      "date": "2000-12-09T12:08:41+00:00",
      "subject": "Interpretation and aesthetics (was Re: (urth) PEACE: is Weer's biography knowable? (long))",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Michael Straight wrote:\n\nOn Thu, 7 Dec 2000, Adam Stephanides wrote:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Without reopening the question of intent (which I may get around to\nposting on one of these days) I'll say that PEACE, to me, presents\nitself as having been carefully planned out by Wolfe so that its details\nand apparent anomalies are part of a conscious design; that is, Wolfe\ndid nt write it in a slapdash fashion or by letting his inspiration\ncarry him where it listed.  If this is correct, then (unless Wolfe was\nguilty of a monumental lapse of judgment) it is very unlikely that any\n\"accidentally present\" reading I could discern would be more satisfying\nthan the reading Wolfe intended."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "My point was to disagree with your claim that we couldn't evaluate\npossible readings of PEACE by arguing which reading is aesthetically\nbetter."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I never said that.  What I said was that in the case of the coldhouse\nprank, such arguments could not be conclusive.  It's possible for one\nreading to be so superior aesthetically to another that no reasonable\nperson would disagree; examples are \"The Open Window\" by Saki and\n\"Murder Mysteries\" by Neil Gaiman.  In the case of the coldhouse prank,\nthough, I don't think that the superiority of one reading over another\nis as great as that."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "So, for instance, I think the book is more interesting if it turns out\nWeer was the one responsible for the warehouse death, but either lies\nabout it in a pretty daring sort of way (reminds me of Hitchcock's movie\n\"Rope\") or can't admit to himself what really happened.  I don't think\nit's enough for you to respond saying that reading isn't sufficiently\nsupported by the text.  You need to demonstrate how PEACE is a better book\nif you don't read it that way."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I'm not sure what position you're attributing to me.  I would say that\nthe Weer-as-culprit reading is supported by the text, even though it's\nnot explicitly stated in the text. because there are problems posed by\nthe text which this reading solves better than the alternative does\n(although I don't think this argument is conclusive, as I said).  But if\na reading didn't solve such problems, and wasn't explicitly stated in\nthe text, then I would reject it, no matter how \"interesting\" it was.\n\n--Adam"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Perhaps you could argue it's more interesting to suspect Weer *might* have\nbeen responsible for the warehouse death than to know for sure either way.\nWhich might have a stronger claim to be what Wolfe has actually given\nus...\n\n-Rostrum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}