{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/667",
    "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": 667,
    "subject": "cueing theory",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-05-26T18:12:04+00:00",
    "last": "1998-05-26T18:12:04+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0012-0002@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Matthew Freestone",
        "address": "matthew at matthewf.demon.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-26T18:12:04+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) cueing theory",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hi,\nA few more random thoughts on \"Cues\":\n\nAdam:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "My current take on it is that the \"bowling\nballs\" are devils, or something of that ilk.  The not-so-young man's deal\nis very much like selling his soul.  "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I tend to agree with this, though I don't see the bowling balls as\nmalicious: they just do what you want and assume you've thought about\nthe consequences - a little like the 'getting what you want' theme in\n\"Free Live Free\"."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "But this doesn't\nexplain why the \"bowling balls\" perceive each other as \"a fair young\nworld, mottled by clouds and rich with life.\"  "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I think this is because the story is about how all the characters\ninhabit separate worlds defined by the cues which they pick up: we're\nseeing the story largely from the POV of the NSY man, who picks up on\nmore and more dismal puns and whatnot as the story moves on (starting\nwith the goblin/gobbling confusion).\nThe bowling balls don't live in that world at all - in fact, the NSY\nman's characterisation of them as bowling balls may come from his idea\nof a series of cartoons on sports equipment.\n\n\nAlga:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "So I think that the bowling ball is Gene Wolfe, the second bowling ball is\nNancy Kress (or you can choose your other successful and established writer\nwhose mind is a \"fair blue world, mottled by clouds and enriched with\nlife\"), the setting is a science fiction convention, and the n-s-y man is an\nimportunate and not-so-bright fan who wants to become a writer but hasn't a\nclue. Er, cue."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I love this interpretation! Also it provides a sensible context for\nsomething that's explicitly absent in the text: the environment of the\nstory. The bowling ball is described as being sat on a chair of massy\ngold, and there's a reference at the end to a queue (pun?) of customers,\nbut that's about your lot.\n\nbest,\n--                              II         |\\      _,,,---,,_\nMatt Freestone                  II    zzz. /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_.\nmatthew at matthewf.demon.co.uk    II        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\\ (  `'-'\nwww.matthewf.demon.co.uk/       II       '---''(_/--'  `-'\\_)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}