{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5490",
    "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": 5490,
    "subject": "The Fat Magician",
    "messages": 4,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2009-09-21T06:20:57+00:00",
    "last": "2009-09-22T15:06:27+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<8b23d4dc0909202320ha0f9e1bl6c2e22915a3ae61d@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Andreas Muegge",
        "address": "dread.dragon at googlemail.com"
      },
      "date": "2009-09-21T06:20:57+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Fat Magician",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hi,\n\nHas anyone read the story \"The Fat Magician\" from the collection \"Starwater\nStrains\"?\n\nI am puzzled by the fate of \"fat Ernst\". It looks like the Nazis haven't\nkilled him but what became of him?\n\nCiao,\n  Andreas"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<4AB7991A.9010509@gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dave Tallman",
        "address": "davetallman at msn.com"
      },
      "date": "2009-09-21T15:17:46+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Fat Magician",
      "in_reply_to": "<8b23d4dc0909202320ha0f9e1bl6c2e22915a3ae61d@mail.gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Andreas Muegge wrote:\nI am puzzled by the fate of \"fat Ernst\". It looks like the Nazis haven't\nkilled him but what became of him?\n  "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "If the obvious answer that the Nazis took him and killed him isn't good \nenough, there is one other possibility -- he has somehow transformed \nhimself into the young woman, Gertrun.\n\nThere are obvious issues of age and appearance, but Gertrun is of the \nS___ family, and so was Ernst. There's something at the end about \n\"What's more disgusting, a man in a dress or...\" and mention of \nwerewolves. It's barely possible. It looks like Gertrun and Dr. Cooper \nbecame lovers, though..."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<8b23d4dc0909220544n6c1a6f0cv845705df5f539891@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Andreas Muegge",
        "address": "dread.dragon at googlemail.com"
      },
      "date": "2009-09-22T12:44:48+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Fat Magician",
      "in_reply_to": "<4AB7991A.9010509@gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hi Dave,"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "If the obvious answer that the Nazis took him and killed him isn't good\nenough, there is one other possibility -- he has somehow transformed himself\ninto the young woman, Gertrun."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hmm. But how is this possibility supported? By the \"werewolf\" remark, which\nmight imply that Ernst is able to change into something different? Or maybe\nhe does not \"transform\" into another person but is rather linked in another\nway (?) to the family S_____. The grandfather was a conjuror and the picture\nnot only showed Ernst but also another person in the background...\n\nOne more thing. I was puzzled by the fact that the waiter in the caf?\nrecommended the Romantic Hotel for lunch. He obviously tried to lure Dr.\nCooper to this place. When Dr. Cooper arrived in the hotel, he immediately\nfelt attracted by Gertrun and they quickly became lovers. This looks like a\ntoo pleasant arrangement to ensure that an offspring is born...\n\n-Andreas"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<4AB8E7F3.5090602@gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dave Tallman",
        "address": "davetallman at msn.com"
      },
      "date": "2009-09-22T15:06:27+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Fat Magician",
      "in_reply_to": "<8b23d4dc0909220544n6c1a6f0cv845705df5f539891@mail.gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Andreas Muegge wrote:\nHmm. But how is this possibility supported? By the \"werewolf\" remark, which\nmight imply that Ernst is able to change into something different? Or maybe\nhe does not \"transform\" into another person but is rather linked in another\nway (?) to the family S_____. The grandfather was a conjuror and the picture\nnot only showed Ernst but also another person in the background...\n  "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Maybe Gertrun was a ghost. In the beginning Cooper said it would be a \nghost story, and that he personally encountered it. He said he would not \ntell the whole truth for the sake of a promise he made to an attractive \nwoman who was kind to him. It's not the first time Cooper had a fling \nwith a supernatural being -- there was \"The Nebraskan and the Neriad.\""
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}