{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6733",
    "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": 6733,
    "subject": "Short Story 221*: The Lithosphere Whale",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2015-04-22T16:43:51+00:00",
    "last": "2015-04-22T16:43:51+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<CAF1072ybckOOOZmqJHvy+NUPYXujBPOzZifm=z-ZN=9n0_YYoA@mail.gmail.com>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Marc Aramini",
        "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com"
      },
      "date": "2015-04-22T16:43:51+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth)  Short Story 221*: The Lithosphere Whale",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "THE LITHOSPHERE WHALE\n\nAs part of the Creature Coral, “The Lithosphere Whale” was Wolfe’s entry in\nthe Wofford College’s 2012 shared world. It appeared only online.\n\nHere is the entry in its entirety:\n\nThe lithosphere whale (Physeter macrocephalus borboros) is more commonly\nknown as the earth whale or the wrong whale. During the great days of\nwhaling in the 19th Century it was called the cachalittle or mobydirt.\n\nLithosphere whales may be divided as follows: blubber, whale leather,\nbaleen, spermaceti, petroleum, and fossil amber. These are the only\ncetaceans known to yield the final valuable commodity. Individuals are\ncommonly solitary, wandering the terrestrial crust in search of food,\nalthough pods are occasionally reported as causing earthquakes. Large bulls\nmay dive to a depth of three (or even four) diamond mines. They are air\nbreathers and must surface to breathe once or twice a fortnight. By day,\ntheir exhaled breath is often visible for a considerable distance; when\nseen, the exhalations of these whales are commonly termed \"dirt devils.\" In\nthe stillness of night they are heard as long whailings. The superstitious\nbelief that they seek to attract railroad trains for reproductive purposes\nhas little basis in fact.\n\nDiet consists principally of soil squids (q.v.), although coal miners and\nbomb-shelter residents are taken as well. Calves are said to dine on\nearthworms, this by filling their mouths with rich soil and forcing it out\nbetween their teeth, the worms being retained.\n\n\n\n COMMENTARY:\n\nThis collaborative creative world was devised in conjunction with Wofford\nCollege’s 2012 summer writing program. Wolfe’s involvement probably stems\nfrom his daughter Theresa Goulding’s position as editor and compiler of the\nshort stories, alongside figures such as Michael Moorcock, Patrick\nRothfuss, the Vandermeers, Lavie Tidhar, and other fabulists of some\nrenown. The overall theme seems to be simply fabulous creatures, most\necologically tied to the environment (such as the lithosphere or the\nstratosphere). The majority are simply absurd creature entries. There is a\nlarge somewhat interactive drawing of the creatures which can be found\nbelow.\n\nWolfe’s clearly relies on some of the whaling details from Melville’s *Moby\nDick,* and takes the classification scheme as a serious blending of the\ndeep terrain and a creature, since types include petroleum and fossil\namber. It fictionalizes the dusty exhalation of the beast as a “dirt devil”\nand borders on absurdity as well with the reproductive talk of railroad\ntrains. Its passive digestion of strained earth resembles the manner in\nwhich a real whale would simply passively sift through swallowed water for\nnutrients. Physeter Macrcephalus is indeed the Sperm Whale, and borboros\ncould refer to borborygmos, or loud intestinal sounds audible externally\nthat can precede blockage or distension. Lithosphere is the hard outer\nlayer of the earth and is composed of the Greek element lithos, meaning\nrock. Another name for the sperm whale is the cachalot, from the Spanish\nand Portugeuse for root word meaning “big head”, and Wolfe puns on this by\ncalling the Lithosphere Whale the cachalittle. Besides the clear influence\nof Melville on the entry and a possible allusion to Jules Verne, it is a\nlighthearted romp with little relationship to most of Wolfe’s other fiction.\n\nCONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:\n\n Wolfe’s contributions to a shared universe can be counted easily on one\nhand. One foray can be found in the two stories set in the shared world of\nLiavek which bookend *Storeys from the Old Hotel* and the miscellaneous\nstories which might blend into the Cthulthu Mythos of Lovecraft. It is\ninteresting to see so many big Fantasy names under the auspice of one\nprogram. While some of the entries are related to each other, the majority\nof them are stand-alone miniature faux encyclopedic treatments. While it is\nbrief and rather uninvolved, it bears a spiritual relationship to works\nsuch as *A Walking Tour of the Shambles* and *Bibliomen* its encyclopedic\napproach.\n\nRESOURCES\n\nWolfe, Gene. “The Lithosphere Whale.” Shared Worlds. Woffod College. 2012.\nWeb. 22 April 2015.\nhttps://www.wofford.edu/sharedworlds/critters/byauthor.html#gwolfe"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}