{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/40",
    "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": 40,
    "subject": "Digest whorl.v001.n024",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-01-22T12:33:08+00:00",
    "last": "1997-01-22T12:33:08+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0002-0066@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Kieran Mullen",
        "address": "kieran at phyast.nhn.ou.edu"
      },
      "date": "1997-01-22T12:33:08+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Re:  Digest whorl.v001.n024",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I can't draw one in ascii, but interestingly enough, it is one of a\nfamily of symbols made from (running or flexed) human legs. The other\nwell-known one is the triskele, a three footed figure. Severian's dog\nwas named Triskele, of course.\n\n    Dave\n    (david_lebling at avid.com)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "    A bit of a red herring, I suspect.  My Greek friends tell me that\nTriskele is a common name for a dog in Greek.  (Sort of like \"Fido\" in\nEnglish, which actually comes from \"faithful\".)  \n\n    I am a bit surprised at the number of people who see Silk as a\nChrist-figure.  It was \"obvious\" to me that he is more similar to Moses or\nperhaps Abraham.  He is called by the Outsider to lead the people to a\npromised land, a promised land which he never sees.  But Wolfe is not\nwriting a heavy-handed allegory;  there is no one-to-one correspondence.\n\n    I think Wolfe succeeds in The Long Sun books and Old Sun because \neven when one does not get all the allusions and subtleties, the story \nremains interesting.  Sometimes I think he goes over the edge into\npuzzle-making;  for my tastes it is possible to overdue these things\n(This was my experience with The Fifth Head of Cerberus, which I still\ndon't understand).\n\n    Wolfe's brand of theological sf is interesting in that all events can\nbe interpreted in a strictly atheistic sense (such as Crane's explanation\nof Silk's revelation).  It is up to the reader to decide if there is any\ntruth to the religious claims.  James Blish writes the same way in some of\nhis works (i.e. _A Case of Conscience_). \n\n                 Kieran Mullen\n\n\n Kieran Mullen                         email: kieran at phyast.nhn.ou.edu\n Dept. of Physics and Astronomy        phone: (405) 325-3961\n The University of Oklahoma            FAX: (405) 325-7557\n Norman, OK 73019, USA                 http://www.nhn.uoknor.edu/~kieran/\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}