{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3432", "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": 3432, "subject": "Newt's main referent", "messages": 6, "voices": 4, "first": "2002-09-01T08:41:22+00:00", "last": "2002-09-03T20:35:50+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Nicholas Gevers", "address": "vermoulian at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2002-09-01T08:41:22+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Newt's main referent", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Considering when EXODUS FROM THE LONG SUN was being\nwritten (1994-5), Councillor Newt has a pretty obvious\nreal-life referent: Newt Gingrich, elected Speaker of\nthe US House of Representatives after the unexpected\nRepublican congressional election victories of\nNovember 1994. From what we see of Newt, the\nresemblance is pretty profound...\n\n--Nick Gevers." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice K. Turner", "address": "aturner6 at nyc.rr.com" }, "date": "2002-09-02T01:03:41+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Newt's main referent", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Good call, Nick. Some major convention (WorldCon, I guess) was held in, I\nthink, Atlanta in the 80s and Newt, for reasons that I think had to do with\nBruce Sterling, was the banquet speaker. Though I'm not much of a\nconventioneer, I attended this (my parents lived in Atlanta) as a friend of\nLucius Shepard, and, though I never met him there, I'm pretty sure Wolfe was\non hand. I'd only barely heard of Gingrich at that point. But, among the\nmore politicially minded, there was much furor, and a contingent, including\nLucius (but not me), ostentatiously walked out of the banquet as Gingrich\nwas introduced. Can't remember much about the speech or the evening\notherwise except that both were boring--but that you expect. Gingrich seemed\nmore menacing later, but that was the explicit SF connection. (Sorry to be\nso vague on particulars, but I've sort of accidentally attended a few\nconventions or parts of them; the only ones I remember well are those I'd\nplanned in advance, and this was a last-minute thing--if it wasn't Atlanta I\napologize, but it was somewhere else I just happened to be for other\nreasons.)\n\n-alga" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Considering when EXODUS FROM THE LONG SUN was being\nwritten (1994-5), Councillor Newt has a pretty obvious\nreal-life referent: Newt Gingrich, elected Speaker of\nthe US House of Representatives after the unexpected\nRepublican congressional election victories of\nNovember 1994. From what we see of Newt, the\nresemblance is pretty profound...\n\n--Nick Gevers.\n\n__________________________________________________\nDo You Yahoo!?\nEverything you'll ever need on one web page\nfrom News and Sport to Email and Music Charts\nhttp://uk.my.yahoo.com\n\n--" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "2002-09-02T05:16:54+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Newt's main referent", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sun, 1 Sep 2002, Alice K. Turner wrote:\nGood call, Nick. Some major convention (WorldCon, I guess) was held in, I\nthink, Atlanta in the 80s and Newt, for reasons that I think had to do with\nBruce Sterling, was the banquet speaker." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Also, at the time, Newt was one of the most famous science-fiction writers\nin America (along with William Shatner and, arguably, Stephen King).\n\n-Rostrum" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice K. Turner", "address": "aturner6 at nyc.rr.com" }, "date": "2002-09-03T02:39:00+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Newt's main referent", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "From: rostrum" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sun, 1 Sep 2002, Alice K. Turner wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Good call, Nick. Some major convention (WorldCon, I guess) was held in,\nI\nthink, Atlanta in the 80s and Newt, for reasons that I think had to do\nwith\nBruce Sterling, was the banquet speaker." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Also, at the time, Newt was one of the most famous science-fiction writers\nin America (along with William Shatner and, arguably, Stephen King)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "No, I'm almost certain that this was before his novel was published, though\nit was in the works, and Sterling would have known of it. I can't remember\nthe name of the novel, so can't check it out against dates--there's a lot of\nNewt stuff on Amazon. Just wanted to note that I thought Nick was on the\nright track. (But sf die-hards can surely check the con date--if I am\ncorrect that it was a WorldCon--the Newt pub date and the Wolfe pub date).\n\n-alga" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "ddanehy at siebel.com" }, "date": "2002-09-03T19:41:12+00:00", "subject": "RE: (urth) Newt's main referent", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Alga wrote:\nNo, I'm almost certain that this was before his novel was \npublished, though it was in the works, and Sterling would\nhave known of it. I can't remember the name of the novel,\nso can't check it out against dates--there's a lot of\nNewt stuff on Amazon. Just wanted to note that I thought Nick \nwas on the right track. (But sf die-hards can surely check\nthe con date--if I am correct that it was a WorldCon--the\nNewt pub date and the Wolfe pub date)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "According to http://web2.iadfw.net/tharvia/charts/worldcons.gif,\nthere have been two Worldcons held in Atlanta. One of them was\nin 1986 and so fits pretty well with what you've described. \n\nGingrich's SF novel, 1945, was published in 1995." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice K. Turner", "address": "aturner6 at nyc.rr.com" }, "date": "2002-09-03T20:35:50+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Newt's main referent", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Blattid bleated:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Alga wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "No, I'm almost certain that this was before his novel was\npublished," }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "According to http://web2.iadfw.net/tharvia/charts/worldcons.gif,\nthere have been two Worldcons held in Atlanta. One of them was\nin 1986 and so fits pretty well with what you've described.\n\nGingrich's SF novel, 1945, was published in 1995." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "That feels exactly right. Lucius Shepard would not have been at a DragonCon,\nnor would Wolfe, nor Sterling, nor is there a banquet. (I, on the other\nhand, did go to at least one, maybe two--the Atlanta connection.) And the LS\nbooks began to appear in 1993, which means that they were most likely\nbeginning to be drafted just about then or shortly after. Kudos again,\nNick--and I feel pleased to have put a jigsaw piece in place! (With help\nfrom Blattid.)\n\n-alga" } ] } ] }