{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1262",
    "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": 1262,
    "subject": "Puzzles (was: another topic)",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-03-12T14:44:35+00:00",
    "last": "2001-03-12T14:44:35+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0429@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Kevin J. Maroney",
        "address": "kmaroney at ungames.com"
      },
      "date": "2001-03-12T14:44:35+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Puzzles (was: another topic)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 08:41 AM 3/12/01 -0800, Dan'l wrote:\nPerhaps that was precisely the purpose? Not suggesting that \nWolfe is writing for/at this list (though I can think of at \nleast one case of an extraordinarily talented musician doing \nthe analogous thing, writing a song directed obliquely at an \nonline fan group); but that Wolfe deliberately might write a\nRorschach blot of a book, intentionally setting it up so that\nwhat you find in it depends even more than usual on what you\nbring to it."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I was just discussing this with a friend on Friday. One might posit that\nthere is a genre of \"puzzling fiction\"--fiction where much or all of the\nmeaning is hidden behind misdirections, puns, jokes, allusions, omissions,\nand so forth. One of the obvious masters of this, and one of Wolfe's clear\nantecedents, is Nabokov. \n\nIt is clear that Wolfe enjoys writing in this genre. In fact, he writes in\nthis genre even more consistently than he writes in speculative fiction;\n_Peace_ and _Pandora, by Holly Hollander_ are both \"puzzle fiction\" but are\nat most only loosely speculative fiction. \n\nI don't know why Wolfe is so fond of puzzle fiction. Based on some of his\nwritings and speeches about his work, I know that he thinks that there is a\nparticular joy in piecing together meaning for themselves. I also know that\nhe enjoys writing for an audience which enjoys that aspect of his work. \n\nI know that I enjoy puzzling through his books. I also know that there are\npuzzles in them that I haven't solved. \n\nUnlike the person who started this thread, I think that all of the\n*important* aspects of the narrative of both _The Book of the Long Sun_ and\n_The Book of the Short Sun_ are both very clear. There are many puzzles\nwhich remain and which can be chewed for a long time, but the main\nnarrative is much more straightforward in both of these works than in, say,\n_The Book of the New Sun_."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "   Kevin Maroney | Unplugged Games \n   kmaroney at ungames.com | (212) 777-1190\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}