{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/225",
    "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": 225,
    "subject": "Nessus; Bones; Chapbook",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-03-19T09:36:14+00:00",
    "last": "1997-03-19T09:36:14+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0004-0258@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David_Lebling",
        "address": "david_lebling at avid.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-03-19T09:36:14+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Nessus; Bones; Chapbook",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Nessus: (Off-topic for Whorl)\n\nThere's far more to the Commonwealth and Nessus being in South America\nthan just mate.\n\n1) It's in the southern hemisphere.\n2) It's near extensive grasslands.\n3) It's near a huge mountain range.\n4) It's near a jungle.\n5) The people drink mate.\n6) The character of Apu Punchau is a \"real\" Inca legend.\n7) The story of the woman and her three suitors is set in South America,\nand told by a Commonwealth citizen.\n8) The tribe of Magicians is clearly made up of Amazonian Indians.\n\nand so on.  This is just off the top of my head.\n\nOn the other hand, there is clearly a (hmph) Gnostic overlay of\nAlexandria or perhaps Byzantium on Nessus in particular.  If you've ever\nseen a picture of modern-day Istanbul, Hagia Sofia specifically, you've\nseen the Old Spaceport (grin only slightly in jest here!).\n\nDid you know there are legends about secret, lost tunnel systems in\nAlexandria?  Supposedly Alexander's sarcophagus is in one of them,\nprobably somewhere near the Atrium of Time.\n\nI think Wolfe is perfectly capable of layering Constantinople over\nAlexandria over Buenos Aires (Santiago's present-day geography makes it\nan unlikely candidate, _pace_ the map in _Lexicon Urthus_, and the time\nscale).\n\nBones (on-topic!);\n\nSilk's knife, Silk's razor, indeed.  Don't forget the bone (human bone,\nat that) weapons that the tunnel dwellers make and carry.  Silk uses his\nknife to send victims to Mainframe.  The tunnel dwellers use their\nweapons to send their victims to Mainframe (in the Viron colloquial\nsense).  The dwellers live in a kind of hell (dark, underground,\ntormented by demon-gods) but live off the leavings of the gods\n(unconsumed sacrifices) and the flesh of condemned criminals.  Silk\nlives in a kind of hell (the Whorl, a milder hell to be sure) and lives\noff unconsumed sacrifices, is tormented by demon-gods, etc.\n\n     -vizcacha\n     (david_lebling at avid.com)\n\nps: A plug for mantis's chapbook -- Just got my copy, get yours while\nyou can.  It's worth every penny (and more).\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}