{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1139",
    "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": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1139,
    "subject": "Further RTTW stuff",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-02-12T13:02:38+00:00",
    "last": "2001-02-12T13:02:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0194@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alex David Groce",
        "address": "alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu"
      },
      "date": "2001-02-12T13:02:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Further RTTW stuff",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "1) I'm unconvinced that Silk was actually attempting suicide in the\nmanse, in any sense other than not binding his wounds and hoping that\nhe would die.  I'm still not sure how he was wounded, though I have\nsome ideas (but need a second reading to clarify them).  Silk's\nsuicide attempts/contemplations in BOTNS and the rest BOTSS are\npassive--even jumping off the airship strikes me as \"letting the\nground kill me.\"  Second of all, I can't buy that if Silk really did\ndecide to _do_ something, he'd cut his arms in random spots,\nhalfheartedly.\n\n2) I agree with alga that the godling is problematic.  I was impressed\nby the overall effect of RTTW, but there are a lot of points still\nbugging me, aside from what seems to have been rather subpar\ncopyediting.  The godling serves a useful role in the plot (but not\none I'm convinced couldn't have been handled otherwise) and definitely\nheightens the surreal atmosphere of the whole night at Blood's, but it\nstill seems superfluous.\n\n3) Hyacinth is one reason Silk doesn't admit to himself who he is\nuntil Remora forces him to, but I think there is another, equally\ncompelling: Horn and Silk both know that Horn _has_ failed.  Horn was\nsent by New Viron to bring the Silk that Horn wrote about, a Silk who\nwill solve their problems.  Silk is a very good man, but he knows (and\nHorn finds out) that he isn't the Silk of BOTLS.  Viron is in better\nshape than New Viron (certainly not physically, but as far as the\nquality of its civic life) and Silk can't \"fix things\" there.  Silk\ncan lead people to victory in war.  He has the moral power of being a\nvery good man.  But, in the end, there isn't much that he can do about\npeople selling each other as slaves, if that's what they really want\nto do.  Ironically, there's a twist here on the reception of Christ:\nif the New Vironese expected Silk to lead them as an earthly king to\nvictory over enemies, he might suit the purpose.  Instead, they want\nhim to make them just and at peace without any change on their part,\nwhich he can't do.  This also explains Silk's reluctance to go with\nthe Gaonese, but his willingness as well.  They want the Silk that he\nisn't as well, but at least they want him for something he can\nprobably really do."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\" John 8:32\n--\nAlex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)\nPh.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department\n8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066\nhttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}