{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/794", "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": 794, "subject": "Digest urth.v013.n008", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1998-06-15T11:55:39+00:00", "last": "1998-06-15T11:55:39+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan Parmenter", "address": "dan at lec.com" }, "date": "1998-06-15T11:55:39+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v013.n008", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: m.driussi at genie.com\nBut I thought that the English moths of Industrial England were\nalways cited as textbook examples of evolutionary process? That is,\nwhen the environment changed (through sooty pollution, in this case),\nsome moths had camouflage and some moths didn't--those that did,\nsurvived, until all remaining population (or majority, at least) had\nthe same advantage. Then when pollution was reduced, the process\nreversed itself." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "What would Dollo have to say about that? Did the Peppered Moths' (as\nthey are called) coloration actually \"revert\" or did they simply\nevolve their white color a second time? If we introduced large\namounts of red soot into their environs could they evolve into red\nmoths (Cayenne Peppered Moths) or is the range of possible mutations\nonly black and white?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: \"William H. Ansley\" \nFirst of all, it seems likely that a great many people on St. Croix bear\n\"Wolfe genes\" perhaps most of the general population. This is why there is\na \"St. Croix\" planetary face (which is Number 5's/Maitre's/Mr. Millions.s\nface). This is due to Maitre's (and his predecessors', we can presume)\npractice of selling off his (their) \"pratice\" clones in his (their) role as\nchild broker or slave broker. There is probably a higher percertage of\nMaitre's genes circulating in the St. Croix gene pool than is true of any\nother individual on any other planet in the 5HC universe." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I guess that would depend on the status of the children born of slaves\nfathered (or mothered) by the owners." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "There seem to be a lot of \"Wolfe genes\" among government functionaries: all\nthree of the government representatives waiting for Marsch in his room when\nhe is arrested look \"Wolfe-ish\". " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "And they're also \"shape-shifters\" or at least \"job-shifters\", or so\nthey say.\n\nRe: Borski's Hypothesis about Aunt Jeanine\n\nI like it for two reasons:\n\nThe shriveled legs. Why?\n\nThe fact that we hear precious little about the Shadow Children except\nin \"A Story\" and so some vague, inutitive notion about balance and\nsymmetry suggests to me that they are an important part of the two\nnovellas that they don't seem to participate in directly.\n\nRe: Tool using\n\nIsn't it the case that to be a tool user is to not just use an object\nfor some external purpose but to *modify* it for such use; in other\nwords, the chimps who use a twig or a blade of grass to retrieve ants\nfrom an anthill aren't necessarily tool users. Rope? Perhaps it's a\ntool for those who make it, but for those who simply come across it it\ncould just as easily be a vine and could be used accordingly in ways\nthat don't really involve modifying it. But tying a knot is surely a\nmodification? But they might be half-abo and so have *some*\ninstrumentality. V.R.T. *does* learn to write after a fashion, but\nimagines that should he be required to teach, blue mimeo sheets could\nbe used." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: \"William H. Ansley\" \nIn fact, there seem to be as many mysteries about 5HC as there are about\nthe whole BotNS. I think this may be mainly due to the fact that in 5HC\nWolfe means to leave many mysteries unsolvable; I mean it's all very well\n(and very true) to say that when Wolfe leaves somwthing unsaid it's\nimportant, but there is just so much left unsaid in 5HC that I cannot\nbelieve we are supposed to be able to unravel all of it or even most of it." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Yes, I believe that 5HC is deliberately ambiguous and open to multiple\npossible interpretations. I think that BOTNS is mostly watertight\nwith a few leaks that are either mistakes or deliberate provocations\nthat don't mean much, but might mean something.\n\nBTW, one last thing:\n\nI think that the name \"Aubrey Veil\" is very interesting. Why do I\nkeep thinking about the illustrator Aubrey Beardsley (who on more than\none occasion drew masquerades I think) and the siginificance of Beards\nthat we've discussed? A coincidence surely, and yet I also find\nmyself thinking of Aubrey, the little girl in Frederic Brown's\nremarkable story \"The Geezenstakcks\" who was called Aubrey and who\ncontrolled the destiny of her family with dolls. What does the name\nmean exactly?\n\nOkay, it's a stupid idea.\n\nD" } ] } ] }