{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3163", "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": 3163, "subject": "game, bowie, Knight", "messages": 5, "voices": 5, "first": "2002-04-17T19:58:08+00:00", "last": "2002-04-18T12:13:32+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "maa32", "address": "maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu" }, "date": "2002-04-17T19:58:08+00:00", "subject": "(urth) game, bowie, Knight", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is a very inane post on my part, but here are a few random comments:\n\nI managed to play that Castlevania game with Terminus Est in it. It rips off \nall kind of fantasy literature, from Moorcock's Mourneblade to the estoc and \nbadelaire already mentioned on the list. That's a really, really cool game. \nIf you aren't wearing special glasses when you go into the \"last\" room, the \ngame ends halfway through. (Kind of like those uncritical readers of Wolfe on \nthat rasf discussion - they weren't wearing the right mental glasses to see \nthe huge upside down castle underneath the obvious one) Now I'm trying to \nfight the urge to start playing those stupid things again (actually, some of \nthem aren't that dumb - I remember being totally confused by some aspects of \nFinal Fantasy VII's plot (did Sephiroth die before the game even started? Is \nhe just a clone then? Could Vincent be Aeris' father?), and the ending was \nmore ambiguous than Wolfe (did all the humans get wiped out? Did the heroes \nsurvive in that ship?)). I thought I kicked the video game habit in high \nschool.\n\nThanks for the heads up on David Bowie's endorsement, Nigel. Now for the real \nquestion: who would make a prettier woman - David Bowie or Mick Jagger? While \nI readily admit that Mick Jagger may not be an attractive fellow, I've seen a \npicture of him in drag and was taken aback by the improvement. And is there \nreally an extra \"ding\" in Vanilla Ice's rip off of Bowie's Under Pressure?\n\nI haven't been able to find an obituary on Damon Knight online. Was there any \nspecial, extraordinary cause of death, or simply a peaceful shuffling off? \nDan'l, you seem to know. Odd that Lafferty and Knight should die in such a \nshort span of time. Anybody have a favorite Knight work? I like Man in the \nTree, and I have Humpty Dumpty but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. \nI recall someone saying it was very \"lupine\".\n\nHave a nice day, everybody.\n\nMarc Aramini" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Andy Robertson", "address": "andywrobertson at clara.co.uk" }, "date": "2002-04-17T20:14:02+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) game, bowie, Knight", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Damon's obit made the NY TIMES for 4-17-02.\n\nHe was an important man - arguably (even) more important as an anthologist\nand editor than a writer. maa is right - the older generation is dying\noff.\n\n hartshorn" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "ddanehy at siebel.com" }, "date": "2002-04-17T20:09:01+00:00", "subject": "RE: (urth) game, bowie, Knight", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Marc asks:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I haven't been able to find an obituary on Damon Knight online. Was\nthere any special, extraordinary cause of death, or simply a peaceful\nshuffling off? " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "According to the Locus Online obit\n(http://www.locusmag.com/2002/News/News04Log.html)\n\nWriter, editor, and critic Damon Knight died shortly after midnight, on\nApril 15, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene, Oregon. He had been\nhospitalized since Friday, and had been ill for some time with a number of\nailments." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jacob G. Corbin", "address": "webmaster at afriendlysbooks.com" }, "date": "2002-04-18T09:25:31+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) game, bowie, Knight", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "As long as we're on the subject of games, I played one a while back (as I\nwas rereading NEW SUN, in fact - confluence!) that I think folks on the list\nmight get a kick out of - \"Planescape: Torment\". Technically, the game is\nfantastic; lovely evocative graphics, haunting music, and\ndecent-to-excellent voice-acting. But the story - as PC games go - is\nmarvelous, and clearly heavily influenced by the heavyweights of what we\nmight loosely call \"dark fantasy\" - Peake, Carroll, Moorcock, and yes,\npossibly even Wolfe. The neat trick of the game is that it can be gotten\nthrough almost exclusively through dialogue - mad twitchy button-pushing\nskillz are wholly unnecessary - and the wonder is that much of the writing\nis actually pretty good. You play an amnesiac immortal who awakens in an\ninterdimensional megalopolis populated by illicit arms-dealing angels,\nhive-mind robots, cultists of various stripes, and even a pregnant sentient\ncity block. There're also very strong (and not wholly ironic, either)\nChristian overtones, for those of you whose fancy that might tickle. The\nproceedings resonated very nicely with NEW SUN, especially inasmuch as the\nending was left pleasingly ambiguous. Good stuff, and a deal at the 5-odd\nbucks it can be had for at Best Buy.\n\nJacob G. Corbin" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Nigel Price", "address": "nigel.a.price at virgin.net" }, "date": "2002-04-18T12:13:32+00:00", "subject": "RE: (urth) game, bowie, Knight", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Lots to think about, lots of points to respond to. Let's start with the most\nbizarre first...\n\nMarc asked:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Now for the real question: who would\nmake a prettier woman - David Bowie\nor Mick Jagger? While I readily admit\nthat Mick Jagger may not be an\nattractive fellow, I've seen a picture\nof him in drag and was taken aback by\nthe improvement." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is exactly the kind of question I spend a great deal of time not\nthinking about. I can only say that I've never met Mr Bowie, but on those\noccasions when I have encountered Mr Jagger in the pavilion at Lord's, he\nhas been dressed sobrely in an ordinary sports jacket and tie (a brown,\nknitted tie last time, if I recall) and looked astonishingly ordinary and\nnot in the least effeminate. But yes, I have seen the photographs and know\nwhat you mean. Disturbing, isn't it?\n\nI certainly envy those of you who have met with or even corresponded with Mr\nWolfe. The friend I've been staying with in the States for the last couple\nof weeks has been a techincal organiser at various local and world cons and\nhas met GW on several occasions. He described him to me as, \"A typical\nmidwestern guy - very pleasant and very polite, but not someone who suffers\nfools gladly. I always found him very easy and professional to work with.\"\n\nThat sort of fits in with the other descriptions that people have given,\ndoesn't it?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "And is there really an extra \"ding\" in\nVanilla Ice's rip off of Bowie's Under\nPressure?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I couldn't possibly say.\n\nMore anon.\n\nNigel" } ] } ] }