{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4019",
    "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": 4019,
    "subject": "A living torturer",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2003-06-06T22:43:27+00:00",
    "last": "2003-06-09T08:40:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0306-3454@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David Kirby",
        "address": "dbkirby at pressroom.com"
      },
      "date": "2003-06-06T22:43:27+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) A living torturer",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Folks,\n\nThere's an interesting article on a real-life torturer in the\ngossip column of today's WASHINGTON POST:\n\n      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20993-2003Jun5.html\n\n(I didn't bother to track down the original article, though a\nthorough look through OpinionJournal.com should let you do so.)\n\nAs I read the article, I of course couldn't help but think of\nSeverian -- maybe the Severian of Earth-12, who lets his family\n\"help me clean my sword.\"\n\nA telling comment from today's Severian: \"[T]here are many people\nwho faint when they witness an execution. I don't know why they come\nand watch if they don't have the stomach for it. . . . Me? I sleep\nvery well.\"\n\nThis is worth a quick glance. For me, it put into focus some of\nwhat Severian does, and not in the positive, sympathetic, or even\nneutral way much of Wolfe's writing portrays the acts. An eye-\nopener.\n\n(If you're going to look at the article, do so quickly; the POST\nremoves much of its Internet content from free public view after\ntwo weeks.)\n\nAnd if you want some of the general public's reaction to today's\nSeverian, check out the gossip columnist's weekly Web chat at:\n\n\nhttp://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/03/r_style_source060603.htm?nav=hpt\noc_lol\n\n(This should be available for more than two weeks, for those of\nyou reading this message in the Urth archives.)\n\n      -- David\n\n===============================================\n\"It is possible I already had some presentiment\nof my future.\"                    == Gene Wolfe\n===============================================\n     David B. Kirby, dbkirby at pressroom.com"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0306-3457@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "matthew.malthouse",
        "address": "matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "2003-06-09T08:30:24+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) A living torturer",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0306-3454@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On 06/06/2003 23:43:27 David Kirby wrote:\nThere's an interesting article on a real-life torturer in the\ngossip column of today's WASHINGTON POST:\n\n     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20993-2003Jun5.html\n\n(I didn't bother to track down the original article, though a\nthorough look through OpinionJournal.com should let you do so.)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": " http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,971528,00.html\nreprinted from http://www.arabnews.com/\n\nI don't know the Washiton post so I'm not sure of the purpose of the \n\"Reliable Source\" is.  But if it is \"gossip\" then the trivialiasation of \nthe matter - even though by then it is third or fourth hand - seems crass.\n\nMatthew"
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "-- "
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0306-3458@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "matthew.malthouse",
        "address": "matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "2003-06-09T08:40:38+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) A living torturer",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0306-3457@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "On 06/06/2003 23:43:27 David Kirby wrote:\n[Re beheading article]"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/03/r_style_source060603.htm?nav=hpt\noc_lol"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Now I'm even less impressed:\n  Contributor: \"They help him clean his sword\" I couldn't help chuckling \nat that!\n  Lloyd Grove: Fun for the whole family!\n\nHere is the published reponse from our reprinting of the article:\n  http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,973366,00.html\n\n\nMatthew"
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "-- "
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}