{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6673",
    "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'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 6673,
    "subject": "The Land Across",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2014-09-16T12:11:26+00:00",
    "last": "2014-09-16T12:48:51+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<0DA454A32913114C9CC19BB781FB907DF79A@ETSUMB2.etsu.edu>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Norwood, Frederick Hudson",
        "address": "norwoodr at mail.etsu.edu"
      },
      "date": "2014-09-16T12:11:26+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Land Across",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I just finished The Land Across.  I'm new to the list, so I went back a few months and read a review and a comment of The Land Across.  Neither mentions what strikes me most about the novel - aside from the fact that reading it was fun.\n\nThis book seems to me like a pastiche/homage/satire of late Heinlein novels.  The \"clue\" is the way the hero leaves the train.  The Roads Must Roll.  Nothing like this happens again anywhere in the book, so it must mean something, and it made me alert to any place the first person narrator sounds like Heinlein.\n\nHe does.\n\nHe likes women, but doesn't seem to realize how sexist some of his comment are.\n\nHe distrusts governments, but has a strange affinity for authoritarian governments.\n\nHe's the man who learns better.  At the beginning of the novel, he can barely swing his fists.  By the end, he knows how to throw a punch.\n\nThe plot, like late Heinlein, meanders a lot, with a lot of sex, politics, and conversation.\n\nIf it isn't a Heinlein pastiche, I can't figure out what the hell it is - that is, what the unifying theme is.  Obviously politics is key.  There's even an afterword urging people to vote - but to vote for the \"right\" candidate.\n\nThere are all sorts of strange political statements made by the narrator.  Americans have lost all of their freedom, but he enjoys living under a dictatorship.  He enjoys (and misses) the amenities of modern life, but thinks life in a preindustrial setting would be a lot better than life today.\n\nWhich reminds me of a bumper sticker on a pickup truck I sometimes see on campus.  There are two lines.  The first line is \"Crime does not pay\".  The second is \"Neither does farming\"."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<4C337E20-CBE9-453E-9268-50E24D421A84@icloud.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Auspex Rex",
        "address": "auspexrex at icloud.com"
      },
      "date": "2014-09-16T12:48:51+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Land Across",
      "in_reply_to": "<0DA454A32913114C9CC19BB781FB907DF79A@ETSUMB2.etsu.edu>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Interesting. I too believe the conveyer belts are a clue. I thought they indicated shifting parallel time tracks. Grafton first notices the train is no longer diesel but now a steam engine once he is on the first conveyer belt, though the train has apparently changed somewhat even before that (the observation car is different).\n\nI’m not well versed in Heinlein’s work, so thanks for pointing out The Roads Must Roll. \n\nGreat bumper sticker.\n\n-Jeff"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On Sep 16, 2014, at 8:11 AM, Norwood, Frederick Hudson <NORWOODR at mail.etsu.edu> wrote:\nI just finished The Land Across.  I’m new to the list, so I went back a few months and read a review and a comment of The Land Across.  Neither mentions what strikes me most about the novel — aside from the fact that reading it was fun.\n \nThis book seems to me like a pastiche/homage/satire of late Heinlein novels.  The “clue” is the way the hero leaves the train.  The Roads Must Roll.  Nothing like this happens again anywhere in the book, so it must mean something, and it made me alert to any place the first person narrator sounds like Heinlein.\n \nHe does.\n \nHe likes women, but doesn’t seem to realize how sexist some of his comment are.\n \nHe distrusts governments, but has a strange affinity for authoritarian governments.\n \nHe’s the man who learns better.  At the beginning of the novel, he can barely swing his fists.  By the end, he knows how to throw a punch.\n \nThe plot, like late Heinlein, meanders a lot, with a lot of sex, politics, and conversation.\n \nIf it isn’t a Heinlein pastiche, I can’t figure out what the hell it is — that is, what the unifying theme is.  Obviously politics is key.  There’s even an afterword urging people to vote — but to vote for the “right” candidate.\n \nThere are all sorts of strange political statements made by the narrator.  Americans have lost all of their freedom, but he enjoys living under a dictatorship.  He enjoys (and misses) the amenities of modern life, but thinks life in a preindustrial setting would be a lot better than life today.\n \nWhich reminds me of a bumper sticker on a pickup truck I sometimes see on campus.  There are two lines.  The first line is “Crime does not pay”.  The second is “Neither does farming”.\n \n_______________________________________________"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}