{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/789",
    "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": 789,
    "subject": "Three Fingers: Sometimes a Pipe...",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-06-15T09:07:33+00:00",
    "last": "1998-06-15T09:07:33+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0013-0061@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Dan'l Danehy Oakes",
        "address": "ddanehyo at us.oracle.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-15T09:07:33+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Three Fingers: Sometimes a Pipe...",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "It seems to me that \"Three Fingers\" -- oddly for a Wolfe story -- is\njust what it seems.  That is, Adam's theory #2 comes closest to the\nmark:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "2)  \"Michael Mauss\" is sane and the \"Mickey Mafia\" really gets him,\njust like it says in the story.  Supporting this is that\nhallucinations are one of the side effects of reserpine.  I don't\nlike this because it leaves too many questions unanswered.  Why\nwould the Disney people dress up as Disney characters to catch\nMichael?  And why pretend they're going to kill him?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Hokay, let's take this one point at a time.\n\nFirst and foremost, what on earth gives you the eyedea that they're\n_pretending_?  And, similarly, the knowtion that they're \"dressed up\" \nas Disney characters?\n\nI guess I have to back this up, so here's an interpretive principle\nthat I find useful in dealing with Wolfe's texts; call it the Roach\nPrinciple\n   The \"deep meaning\" of a Wolfean text is most likely to be \n   identical with its \"surface meaning\" precisely when that\n   \"surface meaning\" seems most unlikely.\n\nBasic interpretation of \"Three Fingers\":  The Disney characters (and\nmost particularly the Disney villains) are real and are exactly what \nthey seem.  There is nothing under the mask.  Michael Mauss has made\nthe fatal mistake of trading in the Disney Magic^(tm).\n\nYou have to know how fiercely these people protect their trademarks\nto feel this story.  We're talking about a company that brought \nsuit against an urban daycare center because they'd hand-painted\nDisney characters on the walls.  (To their infinite credit, the good\npeople at Warner's helped settle the suit, and paid for repainting \nthe place -- in Warner cartoon characters, for which they didn't\ncharge royalties 8*) ).\n\nActually, in line with the Roach Principle, it is quite possible \nthat Adam's #3 is also correct, that \"Mauss\" is in fact Mickey \nMouse; but I'd have to reread the story to decide on this one, and \nI don't have time right now -- I'm wrapping up for a long vacation, \nduring which I hope to finally get around to \"Castleview,\" \n\"Pandora,\" and \"Storeys,\" and maybe even the one-more-reading of \nPEACE I need to do in order to make my case for \"Weer in Purgatory\" \nas the bestest reading...\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------------\n|                                 |                                 |\n|        Dan'l Danehy-Oakes       | First Amendment Pop Quiz:       |\n|    Staff Curriculum Developer   |                                 |\n|   Oracle World-Wide Education   | Is it all right to shout        |\n|  e-mail ddanehyo at us.oracle.com  | \"movie\" in a crowded firehouse? |\n|        phone 650.506.0793       |                                 |\n|                                 |                                 |\n---------------------------------------------------------------------"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}