{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5221",
    "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": 5221,
    "subject": "Whatever Happened to Auntie Jane? (AEG spoilers)",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2008-11-12T19:03:52+00:00",
    "last": "2008-11-13T16:02:55+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<1bf4dd40811121103h7be7c45dx2b0f298730521f00@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dave Tallman",
        "address": "davetallman at msn.com"
      },
      "date": "2008-11-12T19:03:52+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Whatever Happened to Auntie Jane? (AEG spoilers)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "It's interesting to try to connect the love triangles in Cassie's plays with\nher real life.\n\nIn \"The Red Spot,\" Brad Kingsley (Bruce Sandoz) is married to Jane Simmons\n(Alexis Cabana). In \"Dating the Volcano God,\" Reverend Brownlee (Brian\nKeene-- note the B.K. initial match and the first-name match with Brian\nPickens) is married to Jane Brownlea (Norma Peiper and later Tabbi Merce).\nMariah Browlea (Cassie Casey) dates sailor Mr. Sharpy (Gil Corby aka Gideon\nChase) and the Volcano God (Vince Palma).\n\nCassie supplants both Janes. Bruce Sandoz is attracted to Cassie, and his\ncharacter may be also. She certainly steals the applause from Alexis in her\nlast performance, effectively becoming the lead: \"By this time you'd be Jane\nSimmons\" (p. 54). Aunt Jane Brownlea is in love with the Volcano God (\"And\nhow I love his boiling lava...\" p. 138), but since Cassie plays the leading\nlady she clearly supplants her in this relationship.\n\nThere is a cat-image connection among some of the leading men. Bruce Sandoz\nis \"like a famished lion\" (p. 52). Vince Palma \"pounced\" and steers Cassie\nlike a \"cruel tomcat might steer a captive mouse\" (p. 63). He has a\n\"be-ringed paw\" (p. 64), and a \"tomcat smile\" (p. 285) and he dances with a\n\"breathtaking series of leaps\" (p. 286). Bill Reis is compared to a\n\"friendly tiger\" (p. 77), and dating him is like playing footsie with a\ntiger to find out how he bites their necks (p. 72). Norma calls him an\n\"alpha male,\" a term frequently used of lions (p. 177).\n\nWe can definitely connect Reis to the Volcano God, given the parallel\nbetween the play's title and the chapter title \"Dating Wallace Rosenquist\"\np. 115. The Volcano God is Reis as he is now: powerful and dangerous. The\nVolcano God who comes to Cassie's aid after Reis dies (pp. 285-287) may be a\nmanifestation of his spirit. Reverend Brownlee is Reis as he used to be: a\nmissionary is an ambassador of sorts. Another Brian (Brian Pickens) was\nkilled by the cultist assassin, who really wants to kill Bill Reis (p. 250).\nNorma's role is taken over by Tabbi (a cat-like name).\n\nSharon Bench knows Rian Reis well enough to comment on his being \"too brave\"\n(p.26). She has talked to former wife of Bill Reis and expects Cassie may\nhave chance to talk with her, even before Reis appears on the scene (\"...you\nwon't brace them with it\" p. 25). So the ex Mrs. Reis may well be somebody\nCassie knows. Bill's wife picked the name \"Rian\" (p. 277). Rian and Norma\nare both Gaelic names.\n\nGiven all these connections, there's a possibility that Norma Peiper is the\nex-wife of Bill Reis and the mother of Rian Reis. This gives more of a\nmotive for her murder by the ATF than just showing Cassie they are serious,\nand more of a motive for Reis to avenge her death in person."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<1bf4dd40811130802g564fa118u40dfad438d234db5@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dave Tallman",
        "address": "davetallman at msn.com"
      },
      "date": "2008-11-13T16:02:55+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Whatever Happened to Auntie Jane? (AEG spoilers)",
      "in_reply_to": "<1bf4dd40811121103h7be7c45dx2b0f298730521f00@mail.gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "There is direct evidence that Norma is Bill's ex -- she comes right out and\nsays it: \"I used to be married to the volcano god. Did you know?\" (p. 176).\n\nCassie misunderstands and asks \"Vince?\", and Norma chooses not to correct\nher, but we can see that \"volcano god\" is not capitalized, so we know she\ndoesn't mean Vince. Reis wrote the play (p. 268) and no doubt intended the\nVolcano God character to represent himself. Norma would know that.\n\nBill Reis was married twice before (p. 275). We can reconstruct that Norma\nwas Bill's first wife, not the one who accompanied him to Woldercan (p.\n301). Their son Rian is sixteen (p. 276), the marriage only lasted two years\n(p. 176), and Bill's appointment as ambassador to Woldercan only recently\nended, during the term of the current President (p. 19). It would also be\ndifficult to get much medical help for a child with a defective heart valve\n(p.. 277) in a place so remote that even tampons are hard to get (p. 298).\n\"Nobody could cure him\" (p. 26) implies lots of doctors, so we can assume\nRian was raised on Earth. The second wife may have died on Woldercan or\ndivorced him there and returned to Earth. In the picture where he announces\nhe will retire (p. 14), Reis seems to be alone.\n\nIn spite of Norma saying that there were no hard feelings (p. 176), she\nstill has negative things to say about Bill, \"...what he really wanted\nwasn't a wife, it was a servant who screwed.\" I think this assessment of his\nrelationships with women may be accurate. If his enemies are telling the\ntruth, he has blackmailed for sexual favors (p. 17). He condescends to\nCassie more than once: \"Do you really think I want you, Cassie, for the same\nreason I want Chase?\" (p. 147) and \"You're a trusting woman, and I love you\nfor it. That doesn't mean I'd put you in an executive position. I wouldn't.\nIt's not what you're cut out for\" (p. 269). This is in contrast to Chase,\nwho is condescending as well but at least a bit respectful of her insights:\n\"You're not at all intellectual... but every so often you show the most\nmarvelous penetration\" (p. 222). I may want to reassess my idea of Reis as a\nChrist figure; he may be a false Christ.\n\nReis chose to have Norma in the play as Aunt Jane, and this may have been a\nbit of spite. She has to sing a song about loving the Volcano God (\"And how\nI love his boiling lava...\" p. 138). Hers is not a happy part -- Aunt Jane\nis only supposed to smile once in the whole show (p. 131). Norma is\nuncertain if she will be kept in the show for long (p. 178).\n\nA whole new possibility opens up. We know that the ATF uses ex-spouses (p.\n193). The sniper was set up on the roof of a building about three hundred\nyards away (p. 180), which required advanced knowledge of the path the women\nwould take. It was Norma who got Cassie to walk with her that night (p. 175)\nand she seemed to know the way better than Cassie, who said \"Another darned\nold alley!\" (p. 178). Could Norma have been leading Cassie into an ambush\nand gotten shot by mistake (or on purpose, betrayed by the ATF)?"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}