Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v019.n004

From: Jay Lake <jlake at jlake.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 05:52:40 +0000

Having been lurking on the digest, I must mention something...

>For a long time my favorite explanation for the events that transpire in
>"Forlesen" was provided by the undertaker-type character at the story's
>end--namely, that Emanuel Forlesen has been "revived by unseen aliens who,
>landing on the Earth eons after the death of the last man, have sought to
>re-create the life of the twentieth century." Kind of GW's version of THE
>EINSTEIN INTERSECTION, so-to-speak, with Dilbert as Lobey.

I have actually thought for many years that Delany's 'The Einstein
Intersection' and 'Fifth Head of Cerebrus' were in so close a parallel as to
be eerie. To me, they are almost the same book as written by two authors. I
believe that I base this feeling primarily on the fact that both books are
masterworks in the art of storytelling by misdirection, both are about
severely displaced/resurrected cultures, and both are (nominally) about
humans in stressful, regressed settings.

BTW, I am reading BOTNS aloud to my wife, a chapter per evening, which is
doing amazing things for my own perceptions. We are keeping the excellent
'Lexicon Urthus' on the night stand for quick reference (although I won't
let her see the entries until we're done -- no spoilers!). So I have come to
realize a fundamental question about the book:

How big is that freaking sabertache anyway?

Jay Lake
Austin, Texas

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: CRCulver <crculver at aol.com>
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 01:53:45 +0000

Jay Lake said:
<How big is that freaking sabertache anyway?>

I don't know, but if it wasn't so anachronistic and out-of-fashion, I'd have
already bought or made one. Those things are neat.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html
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