{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2718",
    "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'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2718,
    "subject": "PEACE: Morryster's _Marvells of Science_",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-07-09T20:37:47+00:00",
    "last": "2001-07-09T20:37:47+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0543@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Adam Stephanides",
        "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net"
      },
      "date": "2001-07-09T20:37:47+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) PEACE: Morryster's _Marvells of Science_",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I was looking over the section where this book appears (211-12, Harper hc)\nand I have an observation and a question.\n\nFirst, the observation: the book is introduced with the sentences \"There\nwere several books on his table, and I picked one up.  It was Morryster's\n_Marvells of Science_...\" (211)  Now, this way of phrasing it strongly\nsuggests that Weer is already familiar with the author and title; otherwise,\nhe would say something like \"It was entitled _Marvells of Science_,\" by a\nman named Morryster.  However, the book does not exist: it was invented by\nAmbrose Bierce in _The Devil's Dictionary_, and the author and title were\nborrowed by Lovecraft.  The copy Weer picks up is one of Gold's forgeries\n(and since he finds it in Gold's office, we can dismiss the possibility that\n_Peace_ takes place in a universe in which _Marvells of Science_ does\nexist.)\n\nI can think of three explanations:\n\n1) Weer has encountered the title in Bierce or Lovecraft, and mistakenly\nbelieves it to be real.\n\n2) Weer has encountered the title in Bierce or Lovecraft and knows it to be\nspurious; he uses it to tip off the knowledgeable reader early that he knows\nGold is a forger.\n\n3) The most interesting, if the most farfetched: even before being\ncirculated, Gold's forgery has insinuated itself into \"reality,\" as Gold\nclaims his Necronomicon has done.  (Or, if the hypothesis in my earlier post\nis correct, Weer wishes us to believe this has happened.)\n\nAnd of course, there's always\n\n4) It doesn't mean anything; Wolfe gave Weer that turn of phrase without\nintending anything by it.  (I hope this isn't the answer.)\n\nNext, my question: where does the stuff on Heaven and Hell that Weer\nostensibly reads in _Marvells of Science_ come from?  It doesn't sound like\nanything from either of the book's sources (and afaik, Lovecraft only\nmentions the title without describing the contents).  And it doesn't sound\nlike one of Wolfe's own inventions to me.  It sounds like the sort of thing\nthat might come from Swedenborg, though I'm no expert, and we know that\nSwedenborg was at least indirectly an influence on _Peace_.  Can anybody\nverify or refute this?\n\n(Incidentally, has anybody ever looked into the writings of 19th and early\n20th century spiritualists as possible sources for _Peace_?  I once did a\nlittle investigation in this line, going so far as to read the _Gates Ajar_\ntrilogy.  I found a few suggestive details, but nothing definite enough to\nbe worth posting.)\n\n--Adam"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}