{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/5789",
    "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": 5789,
    "subject": "Padding",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2010-11-30T19:10:41+00:00",
    "last": "2010-12-01T04:23:42+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<AANLkTinO07gc791QCdyvZwGJwka-fyLd-NtHmm_Nivco@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Andrew Mason",
        "address": "andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com"
      },
      "date": "2010-11-30T19:10:41+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Padding",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Mo Holkar wrote:\nI have always seen the storytelling contest as\nnarratively and thematically important. We step\nback from the main action, and get a succession\nof insights into the metaphysics of the\ncharacters' world. We then read on with somewhat renewed eyes."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I think it's quite reasonable to think the contest was not part of the\noriginal plan, but once it was decided to insert it, Wolfe used it for\nmaterial of thematic importance.  For instance, as has been mentioned\nin another debate going on right now, the angel's statement that he is\nfar below God and guesses at his will is very significant for\nunderstanding the Hierogrammates. Now, the same point is made\nelsewher, though in a more oblique way (yes, even more oblique). In Dr\nTalos' play. Nod says that the Nephilim serve the Increate but don't\nget messages from him; they try to guess what he wants them to do.\nGabriel replies 'that's what I was afraid of', suggesting that angels\ndo the same. So by Wolfean standards, the information was already\nthere, but the contest helps to make it clearer.\n\nBy the way, it is a bit striking that each volume has an embedded\nstory - COTC, SOTL and UOTNS have 'Urth and Sky' stories, while SOTT\nhas the story of Father Inire's mirrors. So once COTA was separated\noff into a new volume it was fairly inevitable that there would be a\nstory in it, though it was a work of supererogation to give us four."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<SNT123-W1EAB948042213A6C85794CF260@phx.gbl>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Lee Berman",
        "address": "severiansola at hotmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2010-12-01T04:23:42+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Padding",
      "in_reply_to": "<AANLkTinO07gc791QCdyvZwGJwka-fyLd-NtHmm_Nivco@mail.gmail.com>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Son o' Witz: \"Like the man your friend talked about, most men think they make their homes for their families, but \nthe fact is that they make both homes and families for themselves."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I love all the stories in BotNS and the story contest might be my favorites, even Loyal/17's. By contrast I\nnever liked the poetry and songs in LOTR and usually skim or skip over them. In Halvard's story I best liked\nthe words in the sound the fishermen hear as the gravel scraped their boat bottoms, \"my wife, my children, \nmy children, my wife\". I like Melito's and really like Foila's elegant story. Nice also that they provide some \nguidance for the rules of shapeshifting, since the main text does not (until we get to Severian/Zak). \t\t \t   \t\t  "
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}