{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/341",
    "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": 341,
    "subject": "Echoes of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1997-06-12T17:00:36+00:00",
    "last": "1997-06-13T14:14:19+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0006-0345@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Straight",
        "address": "straight at email.unc.edu"
      },
      "date": "1997-06-12T17:00:36+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Echoes of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "When I first read Nightside, there were a couple of things that reminded\nme of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.  \n\n[Minor spoilers for Perelandra follow]\n\nIn the second book, _Perelandra_, the protagonist, Ransom, is in a\nsituation where it seems the Devil himself (or his representative) is\ntrying to do a Very Bad Thing and Ransom wonders why God seems to be\nallowing it... \n\n  \"Had Hell a prerogative to work wonders?  Why did Heaven work none?\n   ...he was forced to perceive that his own coming to Perelandra was\n   at least as much of a marvel as the Enemy's.  That miracle on the\n   right side, which he had demanded, had in fact occured.  He himself\n   was the miracle...If the issue lay in [God's] hands, Ransom and the\n   Lady *were* those hands.  The fate of a world really depended on how\n   they behaved in the next few hours\" (Perelandra, p. 140-142).\n\nThis seems so close to Silk's formulation of the Outsider's revelation, \"I\nam to receive no help, because I am help\" that I'm inclined to believe it\nmust have been an influence on Wolfe.\n\nThe connection thing is that, especially in Nightside when I thought he\nwas purely a villain, Remora's speech patterns reminded me a whole lot of\nWithers from _That Hideous Strength_. \n\nSpeaking of influences, people keep saying that Chesterton's Father Brown\nstories are an obvious one.  It's been a while since I've read them, but I\njust don't see it - other than that the protagonists are both priests, I\ndon't see any real similarities.  What am I missing?\n\nI know Wolfe has mentioned that he is a Chesterton fan (and here let me\nput in a strenuous plug for _The Man Who Was Thursday_, an amazing book),\nbut has he voiced an opinon about Lewis's works?\n\n-Rostrum"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0006-0347@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jim Jordan",
        "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-06-13T14:14:19+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) Echoes of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0006-0345@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "U rote:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Speaking of influences, people keep saying that Chesterton's Father Brown\nstories are an obvious one.  It's been a while since I've read them, but I\njust don't see it - other than that the protagonists are both priests, I\ndon't see any real similarities.  What am I missing?\n\nI know Wolfe has mentioned that he is a Chesterton fan (and here let me\nput in a strenuous plug for _The Man Who Was Thursday_, an amazing book),\nbut has he voiced an opinon about Lewis's works?\n\n-Rostrum"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "\tIn his interview with me, available over on Paul Duggan's Wolfe Page, Gene\nsaid that he is quite a Lewis fan. Influence is, thus, quite possible.\n\tOnly the first book betrays a Father Brownish element, IMO, as Silk solves\na crime.\n\nNutria"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}