{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/759", "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": 759, "subject": "Eoliths (II); alga vs Aubrey Veil", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1998-06-10T23:20:07+00:00", "last": "1998-06-10T23:20:07+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Borski", "address": "rborski at coredcs.com" }, "date": "1998-06-10T23:20:07+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Eoliths (II); alga vs Aubrey Veil", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "To Tony Ellis:\n\nI found out some more information about eoliths and it is possible they\nhave the sharper, fresher edge Marsch describes. According to the\nENCYCLOPEDIA OF ARCHAEOLOGY (ed. by Glyn Daniel; Thomas Y. Crowell), sharp\nedges are perfectly consistent with the nature of eoliths, where the\nprimary force involved in their production is thermal fracturing via frost.\nThey don't become eroded unless the shattered rock winds up in running\nwater or covered with soil. And many 20th century archeologists were\noriginally convinced enough by their appearance to vet them as authentic:\ni.e., genuine artifacts.\n\nAlso remember the conditions under which Victor is searching for\neoliths--not by daylight, but the light of sisterworld. In other words the\npieces would have to be rather large and on the surface for him to see.\nI submit that Victor and Roy make an annual pilgrimage into the back of\nbeyond to replenish their \"artifact\" stores, probably right after the\nspring thaw.\n\nRe: the Gondwanaland vs. Convergence debate. Actually Wolfe utilizes both\nand may want us to make our own choices the same way he did when he had Dr.\nCrane posit organic causes for Silk's mystical visions. Something for\neverybody, right? My primary opposition to the nihil alienum thesis is that\nit's been used to discredit my Roy Trenchard, Alien Homeboy assertions.\nThat's all. \n\nalga subsequently wrote about the four-armed slave:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "We don't know that those limbs are transplanted; they're just as likely a\nmutation. It happens, >especially with the kind of help Maitre provides." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Actually there's no evidence at all that this is a mutation (and whatever\ndo you mean by \"especially with the kind of help Maitre provides\"? Almost\nall mutagenic changes--from macroscale to point--are caused by radiation,\nand I see no evidence of this in Maitre's laboratory. Moreover, directed\nmutation--i.e., specifically inducing certain changes that would involve\nthis extensive of a change thoracically--may never be possible.) What also\nare we to make of Number Five's remark (remember, he's a clonemaster in\ntraining): \"I told her I supposed they had transplanted the extra pair\nafter suppressing his body's natural resistance to the implanted foreign\ntissue, and that the operation had probably replaced some of his ribs with\nthe donor's shoulder structure. 'I've been teaching myself to do the same\nthing with mice.'\"(p. 56) Perhaps this is boyish swag, you might argue; but\nI see no previous examples of this. In fact, Number Five seems like one of\nthe few honest people in 5H and I can cite no other examples made by him of\noutright braggadocio." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Re the attendance of Jeannine at the play, you wrote:\nYes, Wolfe wants the sideshow of her futuristic prosthetic device, but I\nthought her presence indicated that she has begun to feel like family to\nthe\nboys--Maitre would never attend an event like this, but Jeannine has\nunbent\nto them. She loves them. I like this; I don't think it's odd at all, plot\nor\nno plot, but simply part of a kind of richness of writing that allows a\nmaiden aunt to love and be loved." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I happen to agree with you here, but I also feel that every time one of the\nsisterworlds rises and casts its light down on the other, it's meant to\nsignify a link of some sort from world to world. Ask me for examples, I'll\nbe glad to provide further. You also apparently fail to see a link between\nthe crippled daughter played by Phaedria and the wheelchair-bound Jeannine\nin the audience--again, I don't see this as a coincidence. Nor do I later\nwhen David is stabbed not in the arm or the chest, but the leg. He also has\nan avaricious side as well, the same as Phaedria and Jeannine. Surely not\nall three are simply stock French thriftaholics?\n\nRe your dismissal of my Clute clue, the \"'girls,' as you like them.\"\n\nI agree. Editors can be and are occasionally sloppy. I still hold to my\noriginal difficulty with this scene, however. (\"Psst,\" says one hooker.\n\"That Levi-Strauss guy they're talking about? He's the guy who invented\nbluejeans, right?\")\n\nMoreover, the eidolic Shadow Children scene along with its linked titaness\nwalking through walls hologram scene is adumbrated in the very last\nparagraph of VRT's junglebook diary. All the dreams in 5H, I maintain, are\nprefigurative (as indeed most dreams, pre-Freud and modern biology, were\naccorded); witness how Victor describes what he dreams as \"Children,\ntwisted Shadow children that are neither children nor men, and a tall girl\nwith long, straight hair that hung almost in my face when she bent over\nme.\" (p. 240) I maintain this is yet another unifying link with the\neidola-and-hologram tandem I cite.\n\nRe: the using of Robert my earthy given name, as opposed to something of\nsolar coinage: I'll make you a deal, alga. Whether it's to skewer me, or\ncite my more gaseous nature, it's nice to see you finally contributing some\nof your extended thoughts to the list. So here's my challenge: if you can\ncritique what I feel is the strongest piece of evidence in my\nJeannine-as-abo theory, and not just casually dismiss it, I will choose an\nalternate long sun type name. Deal?\n\nHere's what I feel is the strongest point in my argument--my contention\nthat Jeannine is the baby in the picture of the photo, which would make her\n140 years old." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Notice how when he sees the picture Number Five assumes the child is a\nmale, but has difficulty >seeing the face because it's nearly smothered by\nwhite wool blankets. \nRecall as well Number Five's description of Aunt Jeannine as the Black\nQueen \nin chess: \"a chess queen neither sinister nor beneficent, and Black only\nas distinguished from\nsome White Queen I would never encounter.\" The White Queen Number Five\nnever encounters, I >submit, is the real Jeannine--clearly linked by color\nwith the white wool blanket that smother's the baby's face in the picture." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I simply do not believe Gene Wolfe would use \"white\" here except to\nestablish association, the same kind of matching he does for \"obscured\nface\" and \"Queen I would never encounter.\" \n\nDisagree here and I'm afraid we may never reach accord on anything because\nclearly we are using different interpretive primers--not that that's a bad\nthing. Diversity, after all, is the essence of life, both intellectually\nand phenomenologically.\n\nLooking forward to your response, alga. And feel free to spank me any time\nyou feel it's necessary. I appreciate the attention.\n\nRobert (who's busy looking over his medical tomes for a suitable bioname) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n " } ] } ] }