{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/849",
    "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": 849,
    "subject": "Digest urth.v014.n008",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-06-22T19:54:39+00:00",
    "last": "1998-06-23T15:34:45+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0014-0079@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-22T19:54:39+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v014.n008",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Rostrum wrote:\nOn Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Alice Turner wrote:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "You make a good argument wrt Marsch's humanity and villainy, but there's\nstrong evidence against it, and that is his bright green eyes--the boy\nand\nhis mother both have bright green eyes, and that is not a human shade."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "The"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "boy also has pale skin and dark hair, as does the Marsch we see."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Anyone care to make a prediction whether we'll be genetically\nre-engineering eye color before or after we have interstellar colonies?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Well, yes, I'm sure we will...but we're analyzing a Wolfe book where he\nplays by rules of his own. And a particular point in made re \"Marsch's\"\neyes--they are mentioned as a curiosity on each of his appearances in 5HC.\nAnd, in VRT, the diarist (Marsch, for argument) makes a point of the boy's\neyes, and the boy, remembering, makes a point of his mother's eyes.  I'd say\nthis qualifies as a bona fide Wolfe clue, and a hindrance to the Sarge's\ntheory.\n\n-alga-"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0015-0002@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "adam louis stephanides",
        "address": "astephan at students.uiuc.edu"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-23T15:34:45+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v014.n008",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0014-0079@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On Mon, 22 Jun 1998 Sgt. Rock wrote:\nI've been poring over 5th head lately (after getting out of a lengthy\nstay in sick bay), and my attention was caught by the following words,\nuttered by one of Marsch's interrogators:\n\n\"I have examined your papers, and letters follow your name. I shall call\nyou:\n\n'A Polish Count, a Knight Grand Cross,\n\tRx. and Q.E.D.;\nGrand Master of the Blood Red Dirk,\n\tand R.O.G.U.E.' \n\nYou seem to me very young.\"\n\nThis is a real head-banger. What _does_ it mean? First of all, it's in\nquotes. Does that mean it _is_ a quote from somewhere? If so, can anyone\nidentify it?\n\nI can only make vague guesses about the meaning of this doggerel.\n\"Knight Grand Cross\" is in fact a rank in various orders of\nknighthood--and in Masonic orders. \"Grand Master\" is certainly a Masonic\ntitle. But what means the reference to \"A Polish Count\"?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "It certainly sounds like a quote, but I can't identify it.  As for what it\nmeans, in a general sense the interrogator is clearly implying that\n\"Marsch's\" academic credentials are fraudulent.  One possibility that\noccurs to me for \"A Polish Count\" is that in Poland before it lost its\nindependence at the end of the 18th century, a high percentage of the\npopulation was noble and many nobles were impoverished,\nand so being a Polish count would have meant very little in terms of\nstatus.  Another possibility is that in Western Europe, where this\ndoggerel presumably originated, it would have been difficult to check on\nthe bona fides of someone claiming to be a Polish count, so many impostors\nmight have claimed this title and it might have come to symbolize such\nimposture.  But this is just speculation.  (My feeling is that contra\nTony Ellis, the \"titles\" of the poem don't correspond one-to-one to\ngenuine academic titles.)\n\n --Adam"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}