{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/765", "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": 765, "subject": "Digest urth.v013.n004", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1998-06-11T23:56:51+00:00", "last": "1998-06-12T13:36:48+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice Turner", "address": "al at interport.net" }, "date": "1998-06-11T23:56:51+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v013.n004", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Neal Smith writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "-------------------------------\ndesk? That's why I say colonists rather than explorers, who presumably have\nbeen trained in many skills. Or, if that won't wash, say that nearly\neveryone was killed except for a few folks as dumb as me. And that we then\ninbred and got kind of spacy, as I would imagine people do get under such\ncircumstances (cf Australia, if you like--hi Damien!). This, it seems to\nme, would create at least a rope bridge between you and Borski.\n...\n\nExactly. They devolved because of lack of ability to pass on acquired\nknowledge. Also (this is 1972), they're a bit New Agey to start with.\n-------------------------------\n\nWith respect to the idea that the abos are \"spacey\" or \"New Agey\",\nI think the addictive, (perhaps hallucinogenic?) drug that the shadow\nchildren are shown being addicted to in \"A Story\" would provide this." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Excellent, Neal! I haven't had time to reread the second 2/3 of 5HC and I'd\nforgotten that. Good witness for my side against you-know-who-you-are (and\nno, I don't have time tonight to take up your challenge, but I promise I'll\nmake some at least by the weekend).\n\nFour-Eyes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "what were the footsteps in the cave of\nthe man-apes? The first step \"might have been the walking of a\ntower on the Final Day...\" (Claw, VI). And then two books later,\nlo and behold, \".. a machine that flashed fire, a machine that\nwas like a tower walking.\" (Citadel, XXII). Then scarcely a page\nlater, Mamillian's footstep remind Severian of \"that I had once\nwaked in the mine of the man-apes.\" (Citadel, XXIII). It's like\na Martian war machine in the War of the Worlds!" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It's a Tall Ass! I love this! Bravo! And we just know the taluses are going\nto show up as important in TBOTSS because of the inordinate amount of time\nWolfe spent on the factory that makes them, so it's a tie between the\nseries. Hooray!\n\n-alga-" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Westlake", "address": "peter at harlequin.co.uk" }, "date": "1998-06-12T09:58:51+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v013.n004", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 23:56 1998-06-11 -0400, Alice Turner wrote:\nFour-Eyes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "what were the footsteps in the cave of\nthe man-apes? The first step \"might have been the walking of a\ntower on the Final Day...\" (Claw, VI). And then two books later,\nlo and behold, \".. a machine that flashed fire, a machine that\nwas like a tower walking.\" (Citadel, XXII). Then scarcely a page\nlater, Mamillian's footstep remind Severian of \"that I had once\nwaked in the mine of the man-apes.\" (Citadel, XXIII). It's like\na Martian war machine in the War of the Worlds!" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "It's a Tall Ass! I love this! Bravo! And we just know the taluses are going\nto show up as important in TBOTSS because of the inordinate amount of time\nWolfe spent on the factory that makes them, so it's a tie between the\nseries. Hooray!" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It's a bit bigger than that, isn't it? And it walks, too, rather than\nhaving caterpillar tracks. When Severian looks at the Ascian armies\nfrom the Autarch's flyer (why don't flyers float right off into space,\nBTW?) he see \"machines as big as fortresses\", which I take to be the\nsame thing. They look like towers walking.\n\nThey might be intelligent in the same way as taluses, of course.\nThat would make more sense than having soldiers on board if you\nwere going to leave one down a mine for centuries.\n\n(Would you really want one of those things aboard the Whorl?\n \"Stamp! Stamp! Crunch, crack, wheeeeeee...\")\n\nSbear." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1998-06-12T13:36:48+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v013.n004", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Alice Turner wrote:\nIt's a Tall Ass! I love this! Bravo! And we just know the taluses are going\nto show up as important in TBOTSS because of the inordinate amount of time\nWolfe spent on the factory that makes them, so it's a tie between the\nseries. Hooray!" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I'm not sure I know any such thing. My impression in reading that bit was\nthat Blood's talus had been an important enough character that Wolfe\n(Horn?) wanted to give the reader some background about where taluses\ncome from.\n\nLike Chekov says, if a gun goes off in the first act, you better make sure\nsomeone finds it on the mantle in the third act. \n\n-Rostrum" } ] } ] }