{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1207",
    "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": 1207,
    "subject": "Digest whorl.v012.n057",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-02-20T22:08:28+00:00",
    "last": "2001-02-20T22:08:28+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0313@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "BraveSaintCroix",
        "address": "bravesaintcroix at aol.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-02-20T22:08:28+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v012.n057",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Now a series of rhetorical questions:  At what point \ndoes intentional obscurity on the part of an author become a self-indulgent \npretention that gets in the way of artistic expression?  How much do we \nreally love Wolfe because he's a great writer and how much because it's fun \nto solve puzzles? Has Wolfe crossed the line from not giving all the answers \nto creating texts that must be pored over by talmudic scholars rather than \nactual readers of novels?  Is Wolfe writing for a smaller, and smaller \naudience of  expert Wolfe-interpreters?  Discuss."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Wait. . . do I answer these rhetorical questions or not?  Well, you said \ndiscuss, so here goes:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "How much do we \nreally love Wolfe because he's a great writer and how much because it's fun \nto solve puzzles?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "This is the only question I really feel qualified to answer, because after \nfinishing RTTW I've been wondering about it myself.  I read Wolfe because I \nlove to read Wolfe.  The Short Sun and Long Sun, in my opinion, are his best \nworks.  As for how obscure these books are, I don't know.  Most of the \ndiscussion here goes over my head, but I like to skim it and see what I \nmissed and what I caught in my own reading of his novels.  Why do I like \nRTTW?  It's writen beautifully.  I love Silk.  I think he's the coolest \ncharacter in any book I've ever read.  I love the way Wolfe weaves in his \nChristian beliefs (which I share) into his novels.  I like Oreb.  I love the \nOutsider.  I like being able to finish his books and sit back and really \nthink about them, instead of having everything spelled out.  I like getting \non this list after I finish and comparing notes. \n\n-Steve\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}