{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3494",
    "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": 3494,
    "subject": "PEACE: Olivia's courtship stories",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2002-10-21T04:48:36+00:00",
    "last": "2002-10-21T04:48:36+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0210-1888@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at siriusfiction.com"
      },
      "date": "2002-10-21T04:48:36+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) PEACE: Olivia's courtship stories",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "At Macafee's 41st birthday party, Olivia tells the China Pillow story.\nWe've talked about this at length, but now I see two distinct readings.\nThe personal message to Macafee seems to be something like \"I offered you\nmyself but you chose the artifact; you will regret your choice for the rest\nof your life\" (I think we've talked about that before).  The larger\nmessage, the one that echoes more clearly throughout the novel, is\nsomething like this:\n\nThe young person entering adulthood sees a daunting array of obstacles, is\nfearful of the hardships ahead, fearful of the unknown, and full of hope\nfor reward.  Given a happy reality via the magic pillow, the young person\novercomes all the difficulties and rises higher than ever dreamt, and\nstill, as an old person, the same individual would like to live that one\nday over again when the path was all before rather than behind.\n\nThe story at first seems to be a \"sour grapes\" or \"can't win\" sort of tale\n(where human nature is such that happiness is denied everyone, ultimately:\nlike the Grimm's tale [iirc] of the Fisherman's Wife, who isn't happy even\nas the Pope), because the philosopher chides the man and splashes hot water\nin his face.  But I sense something else, since the young man picks himself\nup and continues on to Peking.  He has had a vision of his future and he is\ncarrying on, possibly to fulfill it. And also there seems to be a gentle\nunderstanding that the young person's fears and hopes are balanced by the\nolder person's nostalgia for that same moment: neither one is to be\ncondemned, really.\n\nSmart responds with his Tale of Mr. Tilly.  I think its personal message to\nOlivia is something like this:\n\nSmart is himself the hero of Olivia's tale, the young man on his way up (in\ncontrast to the other suitors, who are all established and settled in their\nplaces); the man with the vision (dreamy orange alchemy vision), unafraid\nof the obstacles ahead.  Smart's \"philosopher\" was the alchemist Tilly, and\nSmart has learned some magic from looking over his formulas -- something\ninvolving oranges that \"may make folks sit up and take notice one day\n(Berkley p. 127).\n\nSo, Olivia choses Smart.  But then she starts morphing, and when she\ncommits adultery with Macafee in front of the Chinese egg, she is herself\ntrying to return to the day of Macafee's 41st birthday.  The irony is that\nshe is the one who, for whatever reason, regrets the choice she made -- the\nhex she cast on Macafee has bounced onto her.  And the egg has become the\npillow, as it were.\n\n=mantis=\n\n\nSirius Fiction\nbooklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley\n29 copies of \"Snake's-hands\" until OP!\nhttp://www.siriusfiction.com/"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}