{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5552",
    "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": 5552,
    "subject": "Wolfe Getting More Christian?",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2010-03-08T11:44:07+00:00",
    "last": "2010-03-08T17:29:20+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<e8e9702e1003080344j7a2963bfw388559dca85c472f@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "James Wynn",
        "address": "crushtv at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2010-03-08T11:44:07+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Wolfe Getting More Christian?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "(I'll note in passing the other day I saw a blogger mention that he\ndidn't enjoy recent Wolfe books as much because he felt the\nChristianity was getting too strong.)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I think the blogger should read MORE of Wolfe's more overtly Christian\nstories, starting with the old \"The Detective of Dreams\", in order to\ndevelop a thicker skin. In my literary and cinematic SF, I tolerate\n--mostly with aplomb-- a constant barrage of (what I consider)\nnonsense regarding anthropologic climate change and (IMO) derangement\nregarding the last Presidential administration. So I'm not sympathic\nof someone who gripes about a teensy bit of religious friendliness in\norder to enjoy the top 5% of SF fiction that Wolfe consistently\ndelivers.\n\nI reiterate: We're not talking about proselyzing. We're merely talking\nabout a writer who does not deal with religious characters with\ncynicism or condesension. AND occassionally you'll see something that\n*could* be analogous of a Judeo-Christian doctrine.\n\nYou didn't link to the post so I'm not sure what works this blogger\nwas thinking of, but I would suppose he was referring to Wizard Knight\nand Pirate Freedom. Those works seem to have affected some readers the\nway Neil Gaiman claimed to have been affected when he realized the\nChristian elements in The Chronicles of Narnia.\n\nFrankly, I found the Christianity in WK to have been not that\nsignificant. It was there in the conclusion, but (once again) there's\na lot more Gnosticism in there, as well as a genuine joy of Norse\nmythology and errant knight trophes. And the conclusion was certainly\nrationalized. Pirate Freedom has a priest as a protagonist so what do\nyou want? Naturally, Roman Catholic Wolfe handled this character\ndifferently than a non-believer would. Big surprise.\n\nJ."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<fb79ad9d1003080929m3e3a8a9cj5e679e11cc244841@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dann Burdette",
        "address": "vincentgrayson at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2010-03-08T17:29:20+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Wolfe Getting More Christian?",
      "in_reply_to": "<e8e9702e1003080344j7a2963bfw388559dca85c472f@mail.gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "While I haven't read the newer books you speak of, I've often felt like\nWolfe's religious elements or ideas that appear in his work are head and\nshoulders above those of his peers.\n\nAs an entirely non-religious person, I've very rarely found an author that\ncan tackle these things without it feeling totally out of place or obvious\n(like the aforementioned Chronicles of Narnia), but Wolfe does this very\nwell.\n\n-Dann"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}