# ground wire *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 01 Aug 1998* > 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. --- ### Peter T. Cash *01 Aug 1998, 17:19* > Robert Borski wrote: > I'd like to suggest the following > about "Silhouette:" in my opinion it's meant to be read as the science > fiction equivalent of a medieval Mystery Play. Throw in a little Francis This is a compelling suggestion. The German names would make sense in that context, wouldn't they? Weren't these plays a Germanic phenomenon? ... > Neuerddraht--German for "New Earth Wire Actually, I believe it's better translated as "new ground wire". Perhaps Wolfe was staring at a German circuit diagram when he was thinking about this story. Hmmm. The ground wire is connected to...well...the ground, or the earth. The inner Earth was traditionally thought to be location of Hell, so the imagery really isn't inconsistent with your interpretation at all. The ground wire draws the current down, into the earth, where it is lost. So if the ground wire is Hell, what is Heaven? The antenna? ---