{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/696",
    "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": 696,
    "subject": "Fifth Head of Cerberus",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-06-01T14:27:23+00:00",
    "last": "1998-07-01T19:13:51+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0012-0036@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "adam louis stephanides",
        "address": "astephan at students.uiuc.edu"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-01T14:27:23+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Fifth Head of Cerberus",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Robert Borski writes:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "later, when the junior\nofficer assigned to review Marsch/VRT's case reads of Marsch's being\nscratched by thorns after an encounter with the tire-tiger, he interrupts\nhis reading and goes back and specifically rereads the two sentences about\nthe shrike."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Actually he just \"glanced at the first few pages...\""
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "But then I went back to VRT and picked up the narrative, with the junior\nofficer coming back to Marsch's journal, which he has put down, no doubt\nhaving free asscociated Marsch's mention of thorns with Roncevaux (again,\nFrench for thorns)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I think the officer puts down the journal because he remembers \"Marsch's\"\nchanged handwriting (i. e. VRT's handwriting) as being similar to the\nwriting in VRT's composition book, and wants to check.  That's why he only\nglances at a few pages before returning, satisfied, to the journal.  The\ndiscrepancy between Marsch's real handwriting and the writing in the\ncomposition book is presumably why the officer at first doubts that the\njournal is actually by \"Marsch\" (195 in the Ace edition, in which \"V. R.\nT.\" runs from pp. 149-270).\n\nmantis writes:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "In addition, Cassilla seems like an abo, from what we know about abo\nfemale prostitutes (shape shifting, make themselves ugly when they\naren't in the mood, green eyes?  [Is this an echo of their world\ncolor, the green of Sainte Anne?  If so, gee, blue eyes might be for\nSainte Croix.]."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I don't get any of this from the two Cassilla passages I found (214, 267).\nAnd if Cassilla can make herself unattractive at will, it seems like she\nwould certainly do so to get out of the session with the officer, after\njust having spend two hours with the major and having to get up early next\nmorning."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "And Cassilla might be the presumed dead cat-girl, working out her\nrevenge upon the traitor-to-his-race-and-girlfriend Marsh/V.R.T.\nWith Number Five the doomed heir of the only \"pure\" humans left."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "You and Robert Borski both believe that the cat followed Marsch and V.R.T.\nis the same as the Annese girl Marsch is convinced V.R.T. is dallying\nwith.  While I can see evidence for this, I'm not convinced.  To start\nwith, there's a problem with conservation of matter.  And what's V.R.T.'s\nmotive for killing the girl?  He supposedly kills the cat as part of a\nfunerary ceremony for \"the boy\"--i.e. Marsch--and it seems unlikely he\nwould kill one of the Free People for the benefit of an Earthman he\ndoesn't particularly like, especially if he did murder Marsch.\n\nMy guess as to what happened is that Marsch did catch V.R.T. with the\ngirl and tried to kill them, as he said he would in his journal (251), and\nV.R.T. killed Marsch in self-defence.  The girl just dropped out of the\nstory.\n\n--Adam"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0015-0057@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "mary whalen",
        "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-07-01T19:13:51+00:00",
      "subject": "Fwd: (urth) Fifth Head of Cerberus",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0012-0036@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "note: forwarded msg attached."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}