{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/838",
    "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": 838,
    "subject": "V.R.T., Marsch and \"man-shaped animals\"",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-06-20T13:34:06+00:00",
    "last": "1998-06-20T13:34:06+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0014-0063@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "adam louis stephanides",
        "address": "astephan at students.uiuc.edu"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-20T13:34:06+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) V.R.T., Marsch and \"man-shaped animals\"",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "On Fri, 19 Jun 1998 alga wrote:\nI hadn't seen this thoery of V.R.T. merging with Marsch before, but I have\nto stick to my belief that V.R.T. is just impersonating Marsch in the\nordinary way, perhaps aided by his shape-shifting abilities if he has\nthem.\n[stuff deleted]"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Yes, that is a good and convincing argument. But still, but still, there is\nthat certainty among the Ste. Anne interviewees that the abos were\n\"man-shaped animals,\" there is the evidence of \"A Story,\" there is\nJVM/ART's own writing from his cell that seem to indicate something\nmore."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Well, the Ste. Anne interviewees have a vested interest in portraying them\nthat way, as R.T. points out.  V.R.T. may even have internalized this\nview, as shown by his assertion that he is half an animal and by \"A\nStory\" (although personally I didn't feel that the characters in \"A\nStory\" were identical to animals in their actions, as you said before, if \nthis is what you're referring to).  That doesn't make it true. And even if\nit is true in some sense, it's not clear what it means: specifically, I\ndon't think it's necessarily incompatible with the intelligence and\ncuriosity V.R.T. displays as Marsch.  Marsch regards V.R.T. as intelligent\n(Apr. 10 entry; 174, Ace edition), and he's not likely to be biased in the\ndirection of overestimating V.R.T.'s intelligence.\n\n--Adam"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}