{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/602",
    "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": 602,
    "subject": "SPOILER WARNING for Ballad of Beta-2",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-04-29T19:19:24+00:00",
    "last": "1999-04-29T19:19:24+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0009-0104@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Patterson",
        "address": "rpatters at midsouth.rr.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-04-29T19:19:24+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) SPOILER WARNING for Ballad of Beta-2",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "More details about Delany, Ballad of Beta-2\n\n12 generation ships left Earth for the Leffer System in 2242.\n\n60 yrs later on Earth, cheap FTL travel was discovered, obviating the\nneed for any more generation ships.\n\nWhen the fleet of g-ships finally arrived, only ten arrived, and two of\nthose were empty.\n\nThe remnants on board the ships were not re-integrated into civilization\ndue to their semi-barbarian and traumatized state. (This element is\nsomewhat like Long Sun.)\n\nThe Beta-2, which our hero explores as an assignment in his anthropology\ncourse, is one of the ships that arrived empty.\n\nAfter much interesting investigation, our hero discovers that the g-ship\nexpedition encountered a race of intelligent energy-beings that live\nonly among the stars--where hyperdrive ships never go. These beings\naccidentally traumatized the inhabitants--both culturally &\nphysically--and also initiated some virgin births. Our hero meets one of\nthe half-human progeny and gets the scoop from him."
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Robert Patterson\n\nhttp://home.midsouth.rr.com/rpatterson\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}