{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5188", "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": 5188, "subject": "mountain and laundress", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2008-10-20T01:50:59+00:00", "last": "2010-01-04T05:50:28+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "<632976.33096.qm@web58201.mail.re3.yahoo.com>", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2008-10-20T01:50:59+00:00", "subject": "(urth) mountain and laundress", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I normally don't think looking at other texts is extremely enlightening for Wolfe's works but I feel differently for Evil Guest. I happened to be looking on my computer and came across "someone comes to town someone leaves town" and started reading it. It had a blurb from wolfe and in the opening it says:\n"Alan's father was a mountain and his mother was a washing machine... his brothers were a dead man, a trio of nesting dolls, a fortune teller, and an island."\n\nHave not read it yet but that struck me." } ] }, { "message_id": "<1bf4dd40810201039s45e1e172x233d471e31813f8f@mail.gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Dave Tallman", "address": "davetallman at msn.com" }, "date": "2008-10-20T17:39:33+00:00", "subject": "(urth) mountain and laundress", "in_reply_to": "<632976.33096.qm@web58201.mail.re3.yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Marc Aramini wrote:\nI normally don't think looking at other texts is extremely enlightening for Wolfe's works but I feel differently for Evil Guest. I happened to be looking on my computer and came across "someone comes to town someone leaves town" and started reading it. It had a blurb from wolfe and in the opening it says:\n"Alan's father was a mountain and his mother was a washing machine... his brothers were a dead man, a trio of nesting dolls, a fortune teller, and an island."" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I think you've nailed it with this reference. I took a quick look at the\nonline html version of this book:\nhttp://craphound.com/someone/Cory_Doctorow_-_Someone_Comes_to_Town_Someone_Leaves_Town.htm\nand it's a perfect fit.\n\n1) The mountain quakes when it's angry.\n2) There are gnomes and golems in its caves.\n3) The setting is near Toronto, Canada. (The protagonist goes to Willowdale,\na suburb of Toronto, at one point).\n4) The nearest large mountain to Toronto is Blue Mountain. There is a trek\nto the summit which takes about 2.5 hours on foot.\n5) The mother of Alan and his siblings is a literal washing machine. His\nfather is a mountain.\n\nWith this mystery settled, there is no longer any real connection to\nMargaret as a laundress. However, I do think she is a werewolf and a spy.\n\n1) The initials M.B. match Mariah Brownlea, and as Cassie remarks Mariah\nbelieves in God but Cassie does not. The matching initials suggest to me\nthat Margaret's religion is likewise an act.\n2) There's the clue of the werewolf's loping gait -- does any other\ncharacter have a unique walk described? (Margaret bobs along).\n3) She is gray and colorless.\n4) Something happened to Alexa right before Margaret started working for\nCassie. (\"I see you know.\")\n5) She avoids an obvious word when misreporting the name of Sharon Bench as\n\"Ladydog.\" As a werewolf female she might be sensitive to this word.\n6) Her kidnapping might be the work of another faction to get her out of the\nway. One of the kidnappers seems to wear werewolf colors.\n7) The fingering of the upstairs neighbor for the Squid God's killers could\nwell be her work. How else would the assassin know that Cassie even knew his\nname?\n8) She had the opportunity to go after Jimmy and scare him to death when she\nwas sent for the stage manager. She seems to pick up on Jimmy's death too\nquickly.\n9) Cassie doesn't call her from the South Seas, unlike her other friends.\nCould Chase's warnings of the marks of a werewolf have caused her to suspect\nMargaret?" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Gwern Branwen", "address": "gwern0 at gmail.com" }, "date": "2010-01-04T05:50:28+00:00", "subject": "(urth) mountain and laundress", "in_reply_to": "<1bf4dd40810201039s45e1e172x233d471e31813f8f@mail.gmail.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Dave Tallman wrote:\nMarc Aramini wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "I normally don't think looking at other texts is extremely\nenlightening for Wolfe's works but I feel differently for Evil Guest. I\nhappened to be looking on my computer and came across "someone comes to\ntown someone leaves town" and started reading it. It had a blurb from\nwolfe and in the opening it says:\n\n"Alan's father was a mountain and his mother was a washing\nmachine... his brothers were a dead man, a trio of nesting dolls, a fortune\nteller, and an island."" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I think you've nailed it with this reference. I took a quick look at the\nonline html version of this book:\nhttp://craphound.com/someone/Cory_Doctorow_-_Someone_Comes_to_Town_Someone_Leaves_Town.htm\nand it's a perfect fit.\n\n1) The mountain quakes when it's angry.\n2) There are gnomes and golems in its caves.\n3) The setting is near Toronto, Canada. (The protagonist goes to Willowdale,\na suburb of Toronto, at one point).\n4) The nearest large mountain to Toronto is Blue Mountain. There is a trek\nto the summit which takes about 2.5 hours on foot.\n5) The mother of Alan and his siblings is a literal washing machine. His\nfather is a mountain.\n\nWith this mystery settled, there is no longer any real connection to\nMargaret as a laundress." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Seconded. Reading through, the very first time, even before the\nrumbling was mentioned, I thought, 'Didn't I read a story with that\nalready?' I didn't even need to look up Doctorow's book to check." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "gwern" } ] } ] }