{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5031",
    "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": 5031,
    "subject": "Comments on Hour of Trust",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2008-05-20T15:41:54+00:00",
    "last": "2008-05-20T15:41:54+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<1bf4dd40805200841s1394df39r18c6c0f88b2c9619@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dave Tallman",
        "address": "davetallman at msn.com"
      },
      "date": "2008-05-20T15:41:54+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Comments on Hour of Trust",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From an interview online Some Moments with the"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Magus<http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/intgw.htm>\n:*\n*\n\n*GW*: \"Hour of Trust\" was inspired by a Damon Runyon story, \"A Light in\nFrance.\" It's basically an early WWII story, written when most people\nexpected that world war to be much like the first one. (We tend to forget\nthat the first and second world wars were only about twenty-five years\napart. We are losing the last WWII veterans; when Hitler's army marched into\nFrance, there were still a whole lot of WWI vets around, including Hitler.)\nAnyway, I read \"A Light in France\" and started playing with the idea in an\nSF setting.\n\nGeneral Virdon sounds like \"Verdun,\" a WWI battle notorius for its terrible\ncasualties. The Frence side went in failing to recognize that the tactics\nhad to be changed from the last war.\n\nTredgold, the English model agency manager, may be on the side of the\nrebels. He wears \"jade earrings and a (phallic) jade pendant.\" Rebels wear\n\"exotic, vaguely erotic jewelry.\" Tredgold may have been the source of the\nsecretary, Clio Morris. She is twice referred to as a \"girl,\" and all the\nmodels are called \"Tredgold's girls.\"\n\nThe name Morris suggests this line from *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, also\nquoted in *PEACE*: \"The Nine Mens Morris is fill'd up with mud.\"\n\nThe early part is full of foreshadowing:\n\n   1. Clio is good for lighting things.\n   2. Force Cougar will be pinned down.\n   3. Donovan is right that he can be hired by a European firm when America\n   falls.\n\nThe starting quote from Proust gives us context to understand how badly the\ngovernment side is doing. Their forces are clearly a \"composite formation of\nodds and ends\" sent in where superior forces have failed.\n\nThe next two pages give a description of the hotel suite in excruciating\ndetail. What is the purpose of this? The impression I get is of symmetry and\nbanality. North and south walls are identically blue; east and west walls\nare glass. There are matching cadelabras and pictures flanking the north\ndoor, and symmetrical bedrooms to the south. This symmetry is extended to\nthe attendees later on: \"Donovan was already deep in conversation with a man\nwho looked so much like himself that he might almost have been talking to a\nmirror.\"\n\nIn contrast, the rebel side seems to be pure chaotic individualism. No two\nof the ken-kin have the same philosophy. It's appropriate, because they\npractice asymmetrical warfare.\n\nThe corporate folks are either anonymous, represented by a single last name,\nor with first and last names nearly identical (\"Lou\" Lewis). In contrast we\nhave Clio Morris with a complete name, foreshadowing her importance. She\nalso does an individual act unrelated to the presentation -- she opens the\ndrapes \"in order to see the stars\" (for the last time). This moment is\ndescribed as being like a principal opera singer entering a market scene,\n\"calling for the thrill of romance or (what is much the same thing) the\ndefense of France.\"\n\nClio seems to be a fanatical individualist. She thinks she is striking a\nblow for a new America where initiative and creativity will be important\nagain. I believe she takes out Peters not because he has the potential to\nturn things around, but because she sees he will fail and become another\nLewis.\n\n\"You don't remind me of anyone.\"\n\"That's good, because you remind me of somebody, Mr. Peters.\"\n\nBut behind the scenes is Tredgold, wearing the jewelry of the cause to fit\nin but intent on feathering his nest. His type will take over after the\nnaive idealists have sacrificed themselves. Meet the new boss, same as the\nold boss."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}