{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3990",
    "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": 3990,
    "subject": "More arboreal headgear",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2003-05-10T11:24:04+00:00",
    "last": "2003-05-10T11:24:04+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0305-3395@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Nigel Price",
        "address": "nigel.aprice at virgin.net"
      },
      "date": "2003-05-10T11:24:04+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) More arboreal headgear",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Reread what I wrote last night about \"The Tree is My Hat\". Hmmm... One or\ntwo little things to add.\n\nI've assumed that the dramatised reading sticks closely to the text, and the\nwhole text, of the story. That's certainly how it sounds. If it turns out\nthat there's further detail in the original written version which is missing\nin the audio version, for example, about the nature of Baden's disease, then\nI will, of course, apologise to Robert for ever doubting the accuracy of his\ndiagnosis!\n\nWhile I'm on the subject of Baden's mysterious illness: I did consider the\npossibility that Baden might have contracted HIV during his time with the\nAgency in Uganda. I believe that HIV is rife in that country, and if it is\ntrue that he is attracted to black women and had sexual relations with the\nlocals as he later does on the Pacific island, then it would have been\npossible that he caught the disease... But I rejected this line of reasoning\non two grounds. The first is that I think that if GW had wanted to write an\nHIV story, he would have been much more specific about the illness and\nprobably emphasised different issues in the story too. I don't really see\nhim leaving HIV as just an unnamed tropical disease. The second reason for\nrejecting this line of thought is that while those suffering from HIV can,\nif they develop AIDS, become vulnerable to a variety of diseases and\ntherefore display a wide range of symptoms, Baden's sweats and fevers don't\nsound anything like the most typical symptoms, whereas they do sound like\nthe typical symptoms of diseases like malaria. Over against that, those who\ndevelop full-blown AIDS often develop lymphatic and brain cancers and as a\nresult can experience paranoid delusions. (Having seen this happen in a\nfriend, I can testify to how terrifying it is to the sufferer, and how\nfrightening it can be to those around them too.) But while Wolfe seems to\nkeep the possibility open that Baden is suffering from delusions as a result\nof his illness, I still don't think it likely, on the balance of evidence,\nthat he's got HIV or AIDS.\n\nI look forward, when I get to read the printed version of the story, to\nseeing how all the names are spelled. All my efforts in this and my previous\nmessage are just \"best guesses\" based on what I heard on the dramatised\nreading. Is it \"Baden\" or \"Badden\"? And how is the shark-man's name spelled?\n\"Hange\"?\n\nAnd talking of names, I realise that I never discussed the name of the\nmissionary on the island. His full name is - from memory - something like\n\"Mervyn Robertson\" or \"Robinson\", but he doesn't like his given name and\nprefers to be called \"Rob\". As some of the other names in the story are\nclearly significant, I wondered what Rob's name might indicate.\n\nThe obvious explanation is that he is some sort of \"robber\", though at first\nthat didn't make any sense to me in the context of the story. He's not one\nof Wolfe's idealised saints, but he's certainly not a bad man either. He too\nhas seen a ghost at North Point, in his case, a villager who, it later turns\nout, has been dead for four days. Thinking him an ordinary, living man, Rob\nhelps him on his way by giving him a lift to North Point in his jeep, and in\ngratitude, the ghost, who is off \"to visit his parents\", kisses him on the\neyes. This last detail is strangely gentle and clearly significant. It seems\nlike a blessing of some sort. I suspect that it confers a gift of\nclear-sightedness or something similar. Maybe Rob doesn't save many souls,\nbut he generally helps them on their way.\n\nAs the obvious representative of Christianity in the story, Rob's a fairly\npositive character, for all the somewhat limited success of his mission. In\nterms of understanding what is really going on on the island, he has managed\nto work out the secret of the islander's origins, but has failed to find the\nlocation of the evil underwater temple. OF course, if Baden's experiences\nare anything to go by, not finding the shark god's temple is a blessing\nrather than a failure. It really isn't a place you want to go! On the other\nhand, Baden is there, happily sitting among the ruins of the king's palace\nin the jungle when Baden goes there a second time. The first time Baden went\nthere, it was with his would-be protector the Chief. This time, Baden stubs\nhis toe, shouts out \"Christ!\", and - hey presto! - there's Rob, Christ's\nimperfect local representative, sitting on the ruined stones above him.\n\nNo, I'm sure that Rob is \"one of the good guys\", which rules out any sort of\nJohn 10.8-10 allusion. He is called \"Rob\", but he's not one of those who\ncomes to steal and destroy the sheep. No, if Rob's name is significant, my\nguess is that it refers again to that verse I referred to last night:\n\n\t\"Or again, how can anyone enter a strong\n\tman's house and carry off his possessions\n\tunless he first ties up the strong man?\n\tThen he can rob his house.\"\n\t(Matthew 12.29)\n\nIn this verse, Jesus is rebutting the charge made by the Pharisees that he\nhas been casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. He is making the\npoint that he is robbing the strong man (Beelzebub) of his victims, because\nhe has first \"tied him up\" (bound him with his own spiritual authority as\nGod's Son), rather than relying, as he is acccused of doing, on the strong\nman's help. In Wolfe's story, \"Rob\" is the would-be thief who would rob the\nshark-god of his victim, Baden, but Baden unties the fish charm and thereby\nreleases the strong man, rendering Rob's efforts ineffectual.\n\nA final, if whimsical, point. At the end of the story, when it attacks\nBaden's family, the shark spirit \"flashes\" on and off, because it can only\nbe visible to one person at a time and has to appear sequentially to four\n(or was the native woman there too, which would make it five?) people. Given\nthat it is hinted that the Polynesians and their gods come from the stars,\nand that Baden glimpses a shark-like UFO above the island, are we to suppose\nthat what is being described is the application of some sort of hyperspace\ntechnology? Compare the braking manouvers carried out by decelerating\nspacecraft in C J Cherryh's books. They \"pulse the vanes\", flicking in and\nout of hyperspace, in order to \"dump delta V\". Just a thought!\n\nNigel"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}