{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4527",
    "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": 4527,
    "subject": "TWK: Not being Able",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 3,
    "first": "2005-12-19T07:37:09+00:00",
    "last": "2005-12-23T22:00:52+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<000e01c6046f$07ea14a0$533ec6d8@rclackey.stic.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Roy C. Lackey",
        "address": "rclackey at stic.net"
      },
      "date": "2005-12-19T07:37:09+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) TWK: Not being Able",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "There are several things about the last few pages of TWK that puzzle me,\nthings that may or may not be related, but which are too convoluted to\ntackle at one time, so I'll stick with this for now.\n\nWhen the Valfather made his first appearance in the story (with Idnn), he\nrefused to call Able by that name. \"I will not name him, because the name he\nbears here is not the name he bears among us, where he is Drakoritter\n[sic].\" (W, 235) I thought that was a bit odd, by itself, because he was\nasking her to help Able and Able was still operating largely incognito.\n\nAt the end of the story, the Valfather showed up before Able had finished\nperforming his miracles of healing, but waited until Able had exhausted\nhimself before coming forward. He said, \"You have done, Dragonritter.\"\nMoments later he asked, \"Are you coming back?\" When Able didn't answer, he\nprompted, \"Few have been asked -- Sir Able. Even once.\"\n\nThe punctuation, the dash, indicates a belated emphasis on the title and\nname. Why did he choose to call him Sir Able at that point? Able answered\nhim with, \"I am not Able.\"\n\nThat is the most puzzling part of the ending for me. Why did Able answer\nthat way? What did he mean? The Valfather's next words leave open the\npossibility that he *heard* Able's words as, \"I am not able\", meaning that\nhe thought Able had reason to believe that he would not be able to return to\nSkai, perhaps not *permitted* to return, for whatever reason. But since Able\nboth spoke and *wrote* the line, I have to assume that he wrote it as he\nintended it be understood. In what sense is he not Able, the man Parka named\nand punished for contradicting her in the matter, the man he spent so much\nof the book trying to become?\n\n-Roy"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<7830676.1135003460047.JavaMail.root@elwamui-norfolk.atl.sa.earthlink.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "James Wynn",
        "address": "thewynns at earthlink.net"
      },
      "date": "2005-12-19T14:44:19+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) TWK: Not being Able",
      "in_reply_to": "<000e01c6046f$07ea14a0$533ec6d8@rclackey.stic.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Roy asks:\nThere are several things about the last few pages of TWK that puzzle me,\nthings that may or may not be related, but which are too convoluted to\ntackle at one time, so I'll stick with this for now.\nWhen the Valfather made his first appearance in the story (with Idnn), he\nrefused to call Able by that name. \"I will not name him, because the name he\nbears here is not the name he bears among us, where he is Drakoritter\n[sic].\" (W, 235) I thought that was a bit odd, by itself, because he was\nasking her to help Able and Able was still operating largely incognito.\n...Valfather ...said, \"You have done, Dragonritter.\"\nMoments later he asked, \"Are you coming back?\" When Able didn't answer, he\nprompted, \"Few have been asked -- Sir Able. Even once.\"\nThe punctuation, the dash, indicates a belated emphasis on the title and\nname. Why did he choose to call him Sir Able at that point? Able answered\nhim with, \"I am not Able.\"\nThat is the most puzzling part of the ending for me. Why did Able answer\nthat way? What did he mean?\nIn what sense is he not Able, the man Parka named\nand punished for contradicting her in the matter, the man he spent so much\nof the book trying to become?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I'll take a shot at these, and we'll see. \nHe meant he was not Able, he was Arthur. Having\ncompletely succeeded at being Able, a heroic figure of his desire, he now\nonly wanted to be Arthur Ormsby again. He had no need for honors from\nSkai, let alone for ship captains or townspeople to *treat* him as a knight.\nHe knew he *was* one.\n\nParka insisted that he play at being Able until he was....able. I don't think\nshe would punish him for denying it now.\n\nAnd even though you didn't ask it, I'll note that Valfather's calling him \n\"Sir Able\" (a title only a knight may bear) means that in causing Disiri\nand her people to come at his command, and in sacrificing himself for his\n(at last) worshipper in selfless love, he had become, not just a brave man,\nbut the knight he pretended to be throughout the book.\n\nJ"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<200512232201.jBNM0rNR006537@basalt.colby.edu>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Fernando Q. Gouvea",
        "address": "fqgouvea at colby.edu"
      },
      "date": "2005-12-23T22:00:52+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Looking for an old fanzine",
      "in_reply_to": "<7830676.1135003460047.JavaMail.root@elwamui-norfolk.atl.sa.earthlink.net>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I remember, long long ago, a fanzine (perhaps called \"Book of Gold\") that\npublished a few issues in which they went through the Latro books (or\nperhaps only \"Soldier of the Mist\") sorting out references and commenting\non source material. A search through my many piles of old stuff wasn't\nsuccessful. Does anyone else remember these? I'd love to see those again.\n\nThanks,\n\nFernando\n\n\n=============================================================\nFernando Q. Gouvea             \nDept. of Mathematics           Editor, FOCUS and FOCUS Online\nColby College                  http://www.maa.org\n5836 Mayflower Hill            Editor, MAA Reviews\nWaterville, ME 04901           \nhttp://www.colby.edu/~fqgouvea\n\nAmong the mail that comes unbidden to my door is the very extensive\ncatalog of a Christian bookseller... The front portion was given over\nlargely to what appeared to be method books for achieving comfortable\nintimacy with God. I wonder which God these titles referred to, and\nwhether the object of their religion might be more efficiently\naccomplished by eliminating the byway of Christianity in favor of a\nstrong drug and a friendly pet.\n  -- S. M. Hutchens, in Touchstone, December 2001"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}