{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/256",
    "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": 256,
    "subject": "Tells; Wounded Feet; The Outsider",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-04-04T09:44:08+00:00",
    "last": "1997-04-04T09:44:08+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0004-0295@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David_Lebling",
        "address": "david_lebling at avid.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-04-04T09:44:08+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Tells; Wounded Feet; The Outsider",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Tells:\n\n\"Tells\" are in general cities buried by the subsequent human history of\nthe site.  In Mesopotamia in particular, this is because the cities were\nbuilt of mud brick, which makes good hill material.  All over the world\nit was generally the practice that when the time came to rebuild a house\nor a city, the technique was to smooth out the previous version and\nbuild on top of it. Keep that up for a few hundred years and you've got\nquite a mound, but not a mountain.\n\nAnother example, more appropriate to _New Sun_, is the ancient Mexican\ncity of Cholula, which was buried by volcanic action.  Pompei and\nHerculaneum in Italy come to mind in this regard as well.\n\nHowever, the description we get in _New Sun_ involves an additional\nstep, which sounds to me like the result of tectonic plate movement,\nmountain building, and ultimately erosion.  This doesn't take quite as\nmuch time as you might think (ten million years would be plenty).\nHowever, a world without volcanos is probably a little short on tectonic\nplate movement as well.  Also, if we are to believe mantis's map of the\nCommonwealth, there hasn't been significant mountain-building\nopportunity -- the coastline looks remarkably like that of present-day\nSouth America.\n\nIt's a puzzlement.\n\nWounded Feet:\n\nI just reread Lewis's _Perelandra_, and interestingly enough the\nprotagonist Ransom is wounded in the foot by the Un-Man (the Devil), and\nthe wound doesn't heal until cleansed by the Perelandran Adam. I think\nthe Fisher King motif is operative here.\n\nAs for Silk's lameness, it serves two purposes.  First, it ties in with\nthe long mythological tradition of lame heroes.  Add (for example)\nOedipus to the list we've been building, and Achilles with his\nvulnerable heel.  Second, it gives Wolfe a chance to show that Silk is a\nsuperman (the duel with Xiphias makes it most explicit).  In showing\nSilk overcoming or transcending his wound, Wolfe is more in the SF\ntradition than the mythological.  In the latter, such wounds are\nmarkers, and often have little to do with the events of the story. In\nSF, where a proactive stance is typical, they are obstacles to overcome\n(think of Heinlein's Waldo, another superman).\n\nScourging the Moneylenders:\n\nI have to believe, potential for Wolfean heresy or no, that the\ndescription of the fortunate man \"enlightened and possessed\" by the\nOutsider is a clear reference to Jesus scourging the moneylenders. \nWolfe has remarked on this story before (in _Castle of the Otter_, I\nthink), where he points out that the only thing we are specifically told\nthat Jesus (by profession a carpenter) made is a whip.\n\n     -vizcacha\n     (david_lebling at avid.com)\n\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}