Subject: (urth) Shadowy reflections on an amazing article

From: Nigel Price <nigel.a.price at virgin.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 12:27:46 +0000

(Well, I've finally read through all those Urth lists that you posted while
I was away. I didn't know what "geritol" was, but was surprised to read of
Marc's apparent surprise that someone only in their mid-forties could
already be pontificating, patronising and dull. Read on, Marc, read on! And
then there was Nick Gever's splendid article on Wolfe in the Washington
Post. Let me pick things up there, if I may...)

I really enjoyed your excellent article in the Washington Post, Dr Nick.
Thank you for that.

Can I pose a few comments and queries?

Was the section of the article entitled "Running the Maze" meant as an
implicit reference to the story "A Solar Labyrinth"? In that part of your
essay, you explicitly compare Wolfe's literary technique to that of the maze
builder:

	"The first challenge: Wolfe makes demands
	of the reader that are at some points
	exorbitant. He has the instincts of a
	mystery writer: He erects mazes of
	practical and symbolic clues, including
	plentiful red herrings, that require acute
	detective faculties to decode, and he
	rarely explains himself at the end."

Let me put my question another way: do you think that "A Solar Labyrinth" is
in some way an allegory or metaphor for Wolfe's methods as a writer? I think
that that would be my current interpretation. Although, on reading the
story, the initial temptation is to make the obvious connection between the
story's narrator and its author, I think that the maze builder in the story
is also in some sense Wolfe, who uses materials drawn from diverse sources
to construct his labyrinthine tales. There remains the possibility, however,
that the maze builder stands also in some sort of symbolic relationship with
God, the cunning author of the created world.

In "A Solar Labyrinth", the maze is created not by the cunning arrangement
of the various objects placed in the garden, but rather, by the shadows
these cunningly arranged objects cast. As the sun moves, so these shadows
move, and the maze itself changes, thereby making it very much harder to
solve.

Now, there seems to be a playfully Platonic element to all this, what with
the maze solvers thwarted by shadows rather than even the things themselves,
which is highly characteristic of Wolfe's writing, where hierarchies abound
and resonant patterns of resemblances simultaneously hide and evoke the
hidden purposes of God. After all, the first volume of The Book of the New
Sun is titled, not for the torturer himself, but for his shadow, and in
chapter XXIV of that volume, we read the assertion: "The Increate maintains
all things in order surely; and the theologicans say light is his shadow."
Of course, the Increate's order can only be seen dimly, glimpsed
occasionally and apprehended partially as events throw distorted shadows of
a higher reality. Even those things which seem to depict the Increate's
purposes most clearly are but pale imitations of the ideals they suggest.
Conversely, however, the sun may shine even on a torturer, and even his
shadow may show something greater than himself. (Where is it in TBotNS that
Severian is caught by the light of the rising sun and casts a gigantic
shadow? I think that it must be somewhere in TSotL, some time during his
crossing of the mountains after his sojourn in Thrax.)

But I have gone too far down this track. Let me return to the author as maze
builder. Ignoring for the moment that other great maze in Wolfe's writing,
namely the labyrinth encountered by the Student ("Theseus" because of his
"thesis"!) in his search for the navicaput, as told in an inset tale in
TBotNS, what should we make of the movement of the shadows in "A Solar
Labyrinth"? (Come to think of it, don't the channels in the maritime maze
threaded by the Student also move and change about? They do! They do!)

It has often seemed to me that while Wolfe does on occasion invest certain
characters and events with quite specific symbolism, the identification is
usually fleeting and evanescent. Severian in some sense takes on the role of
Christ when he resists Typhon's three-fold temptations, but as the author
has insisted elsewhere, Severian is not Jesus, for all that he may be a
pilgrim making a long and difficult journey towards God. (And yes, I reject
Wright's suggestion that Severian's mission is wholly sham and solely a
front for the entirely Machiavellian manipulations of hideous Hierodules.)

To take another example: at the end of TBotLS, it seemed to me for a moment
that Blue and Green stood in polar opposition as possible destinations for
the colonists. The Whorl was a false world from which life must ultimately
pass, but the next world could be either heaven (Blue) or hell (Green). Such
a stark contrast is considerably moderated by TBotSS, where Blue is revealed
to be much less heavenly, although it is debatable as to whether Green is
actually less hellish. (Life and love are at least possible there, albeit
under appalling conditions.) But the overall pattern in TBotSS is
tripartite, not binary, and the simple heaven-hell dichotomy of the
destinations in TBotLS is no longer applicable.

It does seem to me that meanings shift in Wolfe's stories, just as the
shadows shift in his fictional solar labyrinth.

My second query about the Washington Post article is of a somewhat different
nature. In the article, words following colons have their initial letters in
upper case. Is this common practice in the States, or is it a typographical
ideosyncrasy of the Washington Post? Normally, at least in the UK, unless
the next item is a proper noun, colons are followed by all lower case,
unless, for example, a colon is used to introduce a quotation or tabular
list in which the first element is a sentence in its own right. But this use
is essentially for a table or a set of bullet points, not for a
conventional, continuous sentence. Sorry if this is "off topic", but it is
of professional interest to some of us. Any thoughts, any one?

(But wait a moment! Now I look more closely, the convention seems to be
inconsistently applied. Here is an example of an upper case letter following
a colon: "And he has told many: Twenty-two novels and several hundred short
stories bear his name, all wondrous and enrichingly strange." But look at
the first sentence of the quotation given below. The word after the colon,
in this instance "length", starts with a lower case letter, as I would
normally expect. Strange.)

A final query, and this time a request for clarification. Nick, you wrote:

	"A second challenge: length. Wolfe's
	great novels aggregate into a most
	formidable labyrinth of words,
	a meta-novel 4,000 pages and 13 volumes
	long; to ingest the whole takes time,
	which the 21st century does not afford
	in abundance. But there are subseries
	that can be read singly. And the whole,
	its four main sections resonating
	together, is a grand masterpiece to be
	set alongside the best of Crowley,
	Pynchon and Updike: the entirety of
	human spiritual, political and colonial
	experience is its theme, addressed with
	astonishingly versatile acuity."

When you say that Wolfe's great meta-novel has 13 volumes, are you including
"The Fifth Head of Cerberus" as part of the Briah Cycle? I have to agree
with those who have said that while 5HC is a good thematic introduction of
Wolfe, it surely isn't meant to be part of the New Sun-Long Sun-Short Sun
series.

So, when you write about the "four main sections" of the meta-novel, do you
mean 5HC-New Sun-Long Sun-Short Sun, or do you mean New Sun-Urth-Long
Sun-Short Sun?

I was puzzled - but only about these details. I still think that it's a
great article and a fine introduction to Wolfe.

Nigel

"Planet Urth is Blue
And there's nothing that I can do..."
	(David Bowie comes out in support of Marc)

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From: Jason Voegele <jason at jvoegele.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 14:17:24 +0000

> Let me put my question another way: do you think that "A Solar
> Labyrinth" is in some way an allegory or metaphor for Wolfe's methods
> as a writer? I think that that would be my current interpretation.
> Although, on reading the story, the initial temptation is to make the
> obvious connection between the story's narrator and its author, I think
> that the maze builder in the story is also in some sense Wolfe, who
> uses materials drawn from diverse sources to construct his labyrinthine
> tales. There remains the possibility, however, that the maze builder
> stands also in some sort of symbolic relationship with God, the cunning
> author of the created world.

In the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION, Clute asserts that "A Solar 
Labyrinth" is a "meta-fiction" about the entire Urth sequence.  I never 
understood why until I read your post.

Thanks.

Jason Voegele

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 15:19:04 +0000

A few Nutricious thoughts on an excellent essay:

>God, the cunning author of the created world.

         It's both, surely. Man is the image of God. Think of "The Last 
Thrilling Wonder Story" (is that right?). I like the idea that this story 
is designed to say something about Wolfe as well as something about God. 
Makes sense.

>  (And yes, I reject

         Yes, surely. This interpretation makes sense only if Sev. is some 
kind of antichrist in an antiuniverse made by an antigod -- which is what I 
thought the first time through. But Wolfe has made it plain that this is 
not the case at all, and the thesis does not stand up on rereading.

>pass,

         Partly false, but partly the "Old Testament," right? Not evil per 
se, but a womb that must be forsaken for life in the outer world.

>  but the next world could be either heaven (Blue) or hell (Green). Such

         Not sure I buy this scheme. I don't think Blue and Green are 
heaven and hell so much as alternative possibilities in the "New Covenant" 
world outside the womb of the archaic world of the Whorl. I'm not trying to 
overlay the Roman Empire into which the Church went onto the Blue/Green 
situation, just saying that this kind of model makes more sense to me. The 
inhumi are at one level like the pagan gentiles who need to be brought into 
the new covenant world by the humans. But when the humans (like the Church) 
behave badly, one can hardly expect the inhumi-gentiles to behave well. So, 
I don't think Blue/Green are heaven/hell but the new situation in the new 
post-archaic world.
         And thus I'm not sure the imagery really shifts. Returning to the 
Whorl is like returning to the womb of the past to recover things that were 
valuable but have been left behind.
         Where the imagery does seem to shift is right at the end, when 
Silkhorn goes back to the Whorl for a new journey. Yet, since this "imagery 
model" is far from everything that Wolfe has put into the LS-SS narrative, 
this is not so much a shift of imagery as a fulfilling of another zone of 
imagery. Or, perhaps (and I'll bet this is part of it), Wolfe is suggesting 
that moving from archaic (under lesser gods/angels) to "humanist" ("mankind 
come of age" under the One God without angels) is something that happens 
over and over in history as an application of the basic shift from the 
original archaic Ur-world to the New Covenant by the Theoanthropos. Or, 
maybe even, as the heirogrammates were the humans of an earlier creation 
who now are acting like angels in Briah, so Silkhorn goes to the Whorl with 
his family to be a new Pas & Co. superintending the next archaic phase. 
(Maybe it wasn't the heirogrammates but some other Yesod bunch; I can't 
recall.)

>of professional interest to some of us. Any thoughts, any one?

         As an editor, I can tell you that the US practice is to capitalize 
after a colon if what follows is a complete sentence, and not to do so if 
what follows is merely a list or not a full sentence. E.g.,
         This is what I meant: Blue and Green are not heaven and hell.
         This is what I bought: apples, oranges, and pears.

Nutria

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From: matthew.malthouse <matthew.malthouse at guardian.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 16:10:13 +0000

><x-tab>        </x-tab>As an
>editor, I can tell you that the US practice is to capitalize after a
>colon if what follows is a complete sentence, and not to do so if what
>follows is merely a list or not a full sentence. E.g.,
><x-tab>        </x-tab>This is
>what I meant: Blue and Green are not heaven and hell.
><x-tab>        </x-tab>This is
>what I bought: apples, oranges, and pears.
>Nutria
></html>

Although (to a UK typographer) that is correct it doesn't illustrate the
point you made because Blue (In this context) is a proper noun and would
be capitalized any way.  [I almost wrote "in cany case"  ;) ]

The colon in UK English often provides for what *could* have been written
as two independent sentences bing linked: thus a lower case initial letter
would be used.

Matthew

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From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 22:10:50 +0000

--- Nigel Price <nigel.a.price at virgin.net> wrote:
> already be pontificating, patronising and dull.

(For me it was the white hair.)
> Read on, Marc, read on! And
> Post.
...

I too was really impressed.

> Ignoring for the moment that other great maze in Wolfe's writing,
> namely the labyrinth encountered by the Student ("Theseus" because of
> his "thesis"!)

There's one I never thought of.

> in his search for the navicaput, as told in an inset tale in
> pilgrim making a long and difficult journey towards God.
...

An excellent point.  Or maybe Severian had a Christ-like incident
happen to him.
...

> 	(David Bowie comes out in support of Marc)

LOL!  So I forgive you for sticking the tune in my head.

Jerry Friedman

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/

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From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 02:55:34 +0000

>There's one I never thought of.

Wow.  So you might be in the market for a (U.S.S.) Monitor as the Minotaur, eh?

Fantastic worlds await you!

(Gee, this is like making balloon animals as party favors--actually I wish
I could make balloon animals this easily.  That would be a useful skill!)

Ahem.  On another tangent, gushing about "A Solar Labyrinth" must be
tempered by noting the very creepy ending.  Or so it seems to me.

=mantis=

Sirius Fiction
booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley
PEACE INDEXICON update SOON!
http://www.siriusfiction.com/

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:43:10 +0000

Mantically speaking,

> Wow.  So you might be in the market for a (U.S.S.) Monitor as

More plausible than you might think. The famous Civil War ironclad 
battle was not, as often reported between the Monitor and the 
Merrimac, but between the USS Monitor and a scuttled Federal ship 
whose name had been Merrimack -- with a K -- that had been converted 
into the CSS Virginia.

Virginia. Land of virgins. And who were the Young Man trying to
rescue? H'mmmm... 

--That Annoying Cockaroach

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From: Andrew Bollen <abollen at cybercityhk.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:09:13 +0000

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
> Virginia. Land of virgins. And who were the Young Man trying to

Here's a half-baked reading of this story. I take it as very pertinent to
Jonas, and perhaps Serverian reading it to him is the final straw in Jonas'
desperation to escape.

Maybe Jonas is the "son", constructed of dream-stuff - a poetic description
of a robot (the abrupt manner in which the son appears is suggestive perhaps
of a robot activating). The fairytale is a dim remembrance of an expedition
against some alien power oppressing earth in the early space-faring days of
a previous civilization, perhaps not too far distant from our own time. The
alien power one assumes is the origin of Abaia. The watery labyrinth
corresponds perhaps to some hyperspatial analog, in which space-farers
easily lose themselves. It is said somewhere that ships often became lost in
the depths of space over long periods.

Perhaps the "dream son" is generic - robots as commanders of the vessels,
more likely to remain reliable & operative over long missions.

Certainly Jonas' ship must have become lost - it cannot be that they
intentionally delayed their return for aeons, because of course there would
be no reason to suppose the existence of a port to welcome their return, or
indeed the existence of anything in particular on Earth so far in the
future.

 I have an even more half-baked theory that American elements in the Brown
Book tales are intended (by Wolfe) as chronological markers - so this story,
with Civil War resonances, occurs later than the story of Frog, which is
kind of colonial. The "classical" motifs tell us the type of story - Romulus
& Remus in "Frog" marks the founding of an empire; Theseus & the Minotaur in
"Student" for the rise of a new power against the established order (Athens
against the Minoan empire).

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From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:31:11 +0000

>Virginia. Land of virgins. And who were the Young Man trying to

Ah come on, blattid--I =wrote= that essay (published 9 years ago, fwiw),
and now you're just spoiling all the fun for Jerry Friedman's voyage of
discovery!

I am not kidding: there is a world of wonder in just examining the stories
from the brown book.

=mantis=

Sirius Fiction

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From: Andrew Bollen <abollen at cybercityhk.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:52:22 +0000

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Andre-Driussi" <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
> I am not kidding: there is a world of wonder in just examining the stories

Parallels maybe between the Brown Book stories (plus the other "fairy
stories") and the story told by "Loyal to the Group of 17". In both cases,
narratives constructed from "recycled", formulaic components (myths and
slogans), in the absence of language to express them directly ...

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 17:12:52 +0000

> I am not kidding: there is a world of wonder in just examining the stories

Huh? Don't know the essay in question. I suppoese I really ought to
get hold of the Lexicon some time ... I was just following up (albeit
in an indirect way) on my thought about the "Brown Book" tales being
kin to Jesus' parables. Which, btw, I think Andrew's reading continues
very neatly.

--

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From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 17:42:07 +0000

--- Andrew Bollen <abollen at cybercityhk.com> wrote:
[A little thread splicing for a combined reply]

> ----- Original Message -----Blattid quoted and wrote:

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