{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/158",
    "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": 158,
    "subject": "Stuff",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-03-12T13:22:46+00:00",
    "last": "1997-03-12T13:22:46+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0003-0225@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jim Jordan",
        "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-03-12T13:22:46+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Stuff",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Dear Mr. Driussi,\n\n\t1. I like your book. I think you may be wrong in a couple of places, but I\nneed to see your updates (which I shall order). (Well, we all KNOW that you\nHAVE to be wrong in a few places, but thanks for taking the risk!) I like\nthe pun in your publisher name also.\n\n\t2. Since obviously Foundation #66 is a volume we students of Lupinicity\nneed to have, I wonder if you can supply an address, preferably in the US. \n\n\t3. I don't want to get into an \"I like this\" versus \"I don't\" battle here\neither, but I do think that if people can write specifics about what they\nlike or don't like, it helps with interpretation. For instance, I can see\nthat women might consider Wolfe a misogynist from some things he has\nwritten, if they have only read certain books. (He's not, of course.)\nQuestions like that might be worth exploring as general background to our\nmore focussed discussion, if Raton allow it. \n\n\t4. And there is some crummy stuff out there. My paperback of \"Fifth Head,\"\nwhich was my first Lupine encounter (and yes, I fell in love!), has a poor\nessay in the back by Sandra Miesel (?). She thinks the book is deliberately\nambiguous about who the immurred character in the third part is. Nonsense.\nThere is abundant evidence that he is the shapeshifter. Which raises the\nquestion (which perhaps you can answer) of who the real author of the\nsecond part of the book is. \n\n\t5. And that leads to my next point: Understanding how Wolfe does things in\nsome other books may help us with the Long Sun Quartet. (Maybe I'm using\n\"quartet\" wrongly, but I hate \"tetralogy.\") For instance, Wolfe has said\nthat the family name of the Antichrist-Clones in \"Fifth Head\" is\n\"obviously\" the name \"Wolfe.\" Well, that's one I did not get, and I still\ndon't know how to get it. (Any thoughts?) \n\n\t6. An example: There has been discussion of whether Silk's enlightenment\nis really from the Christian God (the Outsider) or not. This is supposed to\nbe a \"deliberate ambiguity.\" Well, I'm not sure that it is. \"Fifth Head\" is\nnot deliberately ambiguous, while \"Castleview\" is all about perception and\nthus is full of a kind of ambiguity (various characters perceiving the same\nphenomena in various ways). But we can get a clue about Silk from\n\"Westwind,\" where the Ruler (God) tells the boy-westwind that He does not\nlike to act openly, but rather through His spies. For Wolfe, God is the\nMajor Player in history, but He prefers to act behind the scenes for the\nmost part. And, He works through created means. From this perspective,\nwhatever may have been the immediate or \"secondary\" cause (that's\ntheological terminology) for Silk's experience, the \"primary cause\" is the\nintervention of the Outsider, who is certainly not in Mainframe. (Indeed,\nPas had sought to suppress the original Outsider religion -- Roman\nCatholicism -- with his overlay of idolatry.)\n\tPerhaps one of the other titles Horne rejected for the story of Silk is\n\"The Outsider's Revenge.\"\n\n\t7. Well, these are just some thoughts for you and Alga and anyone else.\nThere are several stories by Wolfe that I'd love some \"help\" with. Maybe if\nwe ought not to do it here, we could do it elsewhere. Maybe another\ndiscussion list for more general matters. How about it, Raton? A \"Lupine\"\ndiscussion list parallel to the \"Whorl\" list? Or is there already such a\nthing?\n\n\t8. BTW, I do intend to edit and perfect the interview with Wolfe that is\non Duggan's page. I have a couple of letters from Gene with questions and\nanswers that I need to add, and obviously I need to clean up some other\nmatters. I've just been busy....\n\nJBJordan\n\n\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}