If anyone is curious about this, from the FAQ: "Assignment to a field of the "unknown" type is rejected because the compiler cannot judge whether the object to

If anyone is curious about this, from the FAQ: "Assignment to a field of the "unknown" type is rejected because the compiler cannot judge whether the object to be assigned is an acceptable one. Read access to a field of the "unknown" type is permitted, but the field has no specific type and must be refered to through a reference of type Object ." http://www.angelikalanger.com/GenericsFAQ/FAQSections/TechnicalDetails.html#In%20a%20wildcard%20instantiation,%20can%20I%20read%20and%20write%20fields%20whose%20type%20is%20the%20type%20parameter http://www.angelikalanger.com/GenericsFAQ/FAQSections/Techni...?