{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2704",
    "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": 2704,
    "subject": "More Ghastliness",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2001-06-29T11:25:09+00:00",
    "last": "2001-06-29T12:01:44+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0521@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "pei047 at attglobal.net"
      },
      "date": "2001-06-29T11:25:09+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) More Ghastliness",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In the current (July/August, first ever double ish that I know of, not a\ngood sign) Atlantic Monthy there is a long bracingly splenetic rant or\nmanifesto about the current sorry state of American fiction by someone\nnamed B.R. Myers. I wouldn't bring this up on the list (though I loved\nit for its crankiness), as it is about mainstream fiction, except for an\naside so odd, near the end, that I must quote: \"...many of the adults\nwho enjoy Harry Potter would be even happier with Mervyn Peake's\nGormenghast trilogy (1946-1959) if only they knew about it.\"\n\nHuh? This struck such a jarring note that it threw all the preceding\ninto doubt. Absolutely the only thing that the Rowling and Peake books\nhave in common is that they are both fantasy, and one would have to have\nan ear of sheer tin to connect them. Since Myers does not appear to have\na tin ear, I would guess that Peake is the only fantasy he has ever\nread, that he has only heard about Potter, and that no one on the\neditorial staff was familiar with both writers. Any other opinions?\n\n-alga"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0523@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Kevin J. Maroney",
        "address": "kmaroney at ungames.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-06-29T12:01:44+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) More Ghastliness",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0030-0521@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 11:25 AM 6/29/01 -0400, Alga wrote:\nHuh? This struck such a jarring note that it threw all the preceding\ninto doubt. Absolutely the only thing that the Rowling and Peake books\nhave in common is that they are both fantasy, and one would have to have\nan ear of sheer tin to connect them. Since Myers does not appear to have\na tin ear, I would guess that Peake is the only fantasy he has ever\nread, that he has only heard about Potter, and that no one on the\neditorial staff was familiar with both writers. Any other opinions?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "That sounds like a very probable guess. Throw in a dash of \"anything must \nbe better than Harry Potter\" and you're probably 99% correct."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin J. Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com\nKitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction\nhttp://www.nyrsf.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}