{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1288",
    "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": 1288,
    "subject": "Blue beasts from the stars?",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-03-26T23:05:00+00:00",
    "last": "2001-03-26T23:05:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0486@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "William Ansley",
        "address": "wansley at warwick.net"
      },
      "date": "2001-03-26T23:05:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Blue beasts from the stars?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Although the \"spider hypothesis\" is tempting as a reason for the \noctopedalian nature of Bluvian life, here is another possible source. \nThe passage below is from a book that Gene Wolfe may well have read \nas a youth or young man. It is by one of the \"big three*\" of fifties \nSF. I am sure some of you will recognize it or at least will realize \nyou have read it before when you see the title of the book below. It \nis presented in the text as a quotation from a journal, hence the \nquotes within the block quote:\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------\n\"This planet is a fair imitation of good old Terra, which is a relief \nafter the last three, since we can hit dirt without suiting up. But \nevolution must have been playing double-or-nothing here, instead of \nthe four-limbed arrangement considered stylish at home practically \neverything here has at least eight legs . . . 'mice' that look like \ncentipedes, rabbitlike creatures with six short legs and one pair of \ntremendous jumping legs, all sorts up to things as big as giraffes. \n...\"\n---------------------------------------------------------------\n\nThere is a race of intelligent beings on the planet referred to above \nwith a highly advanced technology, more than two eyes and limited \nshapeshifting ability.\n\nThe book is _The Star Beast_ by Robert A. Heinlein, copyright 1954. \nUnfortunately, the eight-legged intelligent race in this book (the \nHroshii) are about as large as a rhinoceros and look like a cross \nbetween a rhino and a triceratops. They also have two arms, in \naddition to the eight legs, although they don't grow their arms until \nrelatively late in life, so they are not really a good fit for the \nNeighbors at all.\n\nBut, I still have to wonder if the eight-legged fauna on Blue isn't \nat least in very small part a nod to this book, which I am not \nashamed to admit I remember very fondly from my youth. I suppose this \nreally is just another of my attempts to guess what Gene Wolfe read \nin his formative years, aside from the Oz books.\n\nWilliam Ansley\n\n*For those who wish to know, the \"big three\" of 1950s SF that I am \nthinking of are Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}