{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/835",
    "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": 835,
    "subject": "OBW contains five frames",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-06-08T08:37:19+00:00",
    "last": "2000-06-08T08:37:19+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0349@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-06-08T08:37:19+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) OBW contains five frames",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Timothy Reilly wrote"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Nick Price's review of OBW was\nalso a fine job (and needless to say I agree with the diplomatic criticisms\nit contains of the plotting of TBLS), but one point of detail - how do we\nknow Hari Mau was searchoing for Silk on the Whorl? - my impression is that\nhe was doing so on Blue only."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Oo-oo, I can provide some parts of an answer for that one!\n\nON BLUE'S WATERS, among other wonders, contains five distinct timeframes:\nBlue, Green, Whorl, Present, and Future.  Most of the \"action\" is in the\nBlue frame (the beginning of the quest, boat on the sea, etc.), and then\nthere is some in the Present frame (the writing of the book,\nadministration, the war, etc.).  And the Future is contained in the\nfootnotes added by others.\n\nBut Green and the Whorl are covered, too.  For example, we know a bit about\nthe trees and lianas on Green (189), as well as the mystery of the Rajan's\ndeath on Green (195)--at least, that there =is= a mystery.  We know even\nmore (and yet, paradoxically less) about events on the Whorl: the pencase\nfrom Horn's father's shop (burned out), references to a fellow named Pig,\nthe presence of Oreb, Silk's robe, Hyacinth's azoth . . . that Hyacinth is\ndead (379) and Olivine is alive (290) . . . even the corn (310) that was\nthe main purpose of the quest, and a new eye for Marble (310).  And more.\n\nWe don't know how the narrator got from Green to the Whorl.  But we do know\nhow he got from the Whorl to Gaon:\n\n\"When I came here I was a prisoner--a prisoner who was respected, true.  I\nwas treated with great kindness and even reverence by Hari Mau and his\nfriends, but I was a prisoner just the same.  I knew it, and so did they .\n. .\n\n\"I owe this town and its collective population nothing, because I was taken\nfrom the _Whorl_ against my will\" (309).\n\nSo it becomes clear that the Rajan, finding his quest in ruins (for reasons\nwhich remain obscure: after all, he has the corn, the eye, etc.), was\nwilling to remain on the Whorl (or wait for a different lander) yet was\ncompelled by Hari Mau and company to board a lander.  Which led directly to\nhis situation in the Present frame (as rajan of Gaon).\n\n(Also, iirc, Hari Mau was looking for Silk based upon what he knew from\nTBOTLS.)\n\n=mantis=\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}