{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6571", "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": 6571, "subject": "Innocents Aboard", "messages": 4, "voices": 3, "first": "2014-07-15T01:43:49+00:00", "last": "2014-07-15T14:46:57+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Antonin Scriabin", "address": "kierkegaurdian at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-15T01:43:49+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Innocents Aboard", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Working my way through this collection, and checked the Wiki for clues\npertaining to \"The Friendship Light\". If one of you threw in the quip about\nthe Star Child from 2001, thanks for the laugh!\n\nAs for the story itself, is there a type of demon / vampire from any\nmythology that spurns the heads of its victims? This behavior reminds me of\ncertain cats I've known, who will leave snake and mouse heads untouched and\neat a good portion of the rest." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Daniel Otto Jack Petersen", "address": "danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-15T08:20:06+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Innocents Aboard", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "One of my favourite stories by Wolfe: I've often wondered about the\ncreature. As I recall, some character says, laughingly, that its victim\nprobably *thought* it was a devil or demon - implying that this wasn't at\nall the case.\n\nI wondered if it was some sort of avenging angel (think of the monstrous\nseraphim and cherubim of Hebrew scripture - Wolfe references the latter to\ngreat effect in another story in this collection, as he also does in\n'Quadrifons' from Long and Short Suns).\n\nI also wondered if it was a gryphon or sphinx or some other being from\nmythology.\n\n(I've also never been able to figure out what in the world is a 'friendship\nlight' is.)\n\n-DOJP" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 2:43 AM, Antonin Scriabin \nwrote:\nWorking my way through this collection, and checked the Wiki for clues\npertaining to \"The Friendship Light\". If one of you threw in the quip about\nthe Star Child from 2001, thanks for the laugh!\n\nAs for the story itself, is there a type of demon / vampire from any\nmythology that spurns the heads of its victims? This behavior reminds me of\ncertain cats I've known, who will leave snake and mouse heads untouched and\neat a good portion of the rest.\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Antonin Scriabin", "address": "kierkegaurdian at gmail.com" }, "date": "2014-07-15T12:35:37+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Innocents Aboard", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Here it is:\n\n\"You took him, as you promised, whole and entire. I have no grounds for\ncomplaint upon that score, or indeed upon any. And I feel certain he met\nhis well-deserved death firmly convinced that he was in the grip of demons,\nor some such thing, which I find enormously satisfying.\"\n\nWe get very little (even by Wolfe standards) description of the\nmaybe-demons. All we really know is they have wings and green eyes. I'm\nwondering if they aren't some kind of alien ... Ty seems to think it is\nsomewhat funny that his brother-in-law will have thought he was being\nattacked by demons. Can we take this to mean there is no supernatural\nelement at all? Ty clearly has a good idea of what they are, and he\ndoesn't think they're demons.\n\nI wonder also about the Coleman lantern at the end, strung up in a tree to\nflicker when \"signal frequencies\" change. It's not uncommon in\nAmerican-myth for alien spaceships (or the beings themselves) to mess with\nelectronics and gadgets of all kinds, when close.\n\nAlien abduction classically is \"whole and entire\" as well, but this doesn't\nmesh with the disemboweling of Nicollete or the headless cat, unless these\nare \"mutilated cow\" events." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 4:20 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <\ndanielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:\nOne of my favourite stories by Wolfe: I've often wondered about the\ncreature. As I recall, some character says, laughingly, that its victim\nprobably *thought* it was a devil or demon - implying that this wasn't at\nall the case.\n\nI wondered if it was some sort of avenging angel (think of the monstrous\nseraphim and cherubim of Hebrew scripture - Wolfe references the latter to\ngreat effect in another story in this collection, as he also does in\n'Quadrifons' from Long and Short Suns).\n\nI also wondered if it was a gryphon or sphinx or some other being from\nmythology.\n\n(I've also never been able to figure out what in the world is a\n'friendship light' is.)\n\n-DOJP\n\n\nOn Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 2:43 AM, Antonin Scriabin <\nkierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Working my way through this collection, and checked the Wiki for clues\npertaining to \"The Friendship Light\". If one of you threw in the quip about\nthe Star Child from 2001, thanks for the laugh!\n\nAs for the story itself, is there a type of demon / vampire from any\nmythology that spurns the heads of its victims? This behavior reminds me of\ncertain cats I've known, who will leave snake and mouse heads untouched and\neat a good portion of the rest.\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Tony Ellis", "address": "tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com" }, "date": "2014-07-15T14:46:57+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Innocents Aboard", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Antonin Scriabin wrote (re: The Friendship Light)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "As for the story itself, is there a type of demon / vampire from any\nmythology that spurns the heads of its victims?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The 'friends' are HP Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth, who steal human\nbrains. You can read about them in The Whisperer in Darkness.\n\nThe fact that they're attracted by a lamp is a Wolfean pun on the fact\nthat the Fungi are described as moth-like." } ] } ] }