Subject: (urth) A Solar Labyrinth

From: Robert Borski <rborski at coredcs.com>
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 20:39:23 +0000

One of my all-time favorite short-shorts by Gene Wolfe is "A Solar
Labyrinth." And yet no one I've ever shared the story with has ever been to
figure it out, to solve the maze, if you will. So allow me my Daedalean
intrepretation. (My apologies if this repeats anything similar said by
others--I know the story has been discussed, but can't remember details.)

It's about tv, folks. The labyrinth consisting of light and dark is a
television--maybe color, more likely an old black and white.

Observe how Gene Wolfe describes it in a typical living room.

It stands "on a manicured green lawn"--the carpet. The various "lamp posts
from Vienna, Paris and London" are the set's tubes or its cathode ray
imagizer. "The standing trunk of a dead tree" is a console, the wooden box
containing the tv.

"The maze changes from hour to hour" (i.e., different programs begin and
end) "and indeed from minute to minute." (the screen is alway changing).

The maze/tv is also a substitute for the real world. Hence the mention of
"armchair adventurers" and "Gone, it might seem, are the great days of
monsters, maidens and excitement." Tv has its own myths as well: the
western, the sit-com, the hospital and cop shows.

Notice the mention of Diana, Tezcatlipaca and Quetzalcoatl, light-bringing
entities. Compare this with Phosphor, the god of luminous dots, our 20th
century equivalent. Note as well the ferver of interest in shows such as
Seinfeld and the Superbowl--it's near religious. As is the tithe we
frequently spend to enjoy it, what with vcrs, large screen sets, and
satellite and cable technology fees.

Observe as well how television can entrap--the lost being at the heart of
this maze is not an Athenian youth, but a couch potato. It is a "maze from
which the explorer can walk free whenever he chooses. And yet it is said
that most of them...do not." "Most adult guests do not escape until they
are rescued by a passing cloud." (i.e., we turn off the set) "Some, indeed,
refuse such rescue." (Anybody remember the days when networks didn't
telecast 24/7? Does your tv have a sleeper function that will automatically
turn it off in a certain amount of time? Anyone have a friend or
acquaintance who doesn't own a tv?) 

"The frowning figure of the Minotaur...a monster that haunts the shadows"
is either loneliness or boredom or an impoverished imagination (notice how
some children escape the labyrinth). 

"Glasses help" to place you in the maze (especially if like Gene Wolfe you
wear spectacles).

Mr. Smith is John Q. Public, the quintessential Nielsen family, whose
interests determine maze design/tv programming.

And the solitary child mentioned in the story's last sentence? It's the
child for whom tv is both babysitter and sole companion, the one monster
who will play with you when no one else will.

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

---

From: Jason Voegele <voegele.6 at osu.edu>
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 1998 14:43:47 +0000

Robert Borski wrote:
>It's about tv, folks.

This is an interesting interpretation, and you're right--no one I know has
ever come up with anything like it.  One question though: what do you
suppose is the "sinister element" that Wolfe claims to have "kept so far in
the background that few readers notice it at all"? (Introduction to STOREYS
OF THE OLD HOTEL)

Jason Voegele

---

From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 01:53:38 +0000

>television--maybe color, more likely an old black and white.

Gee, Robert, I have disagreed with your interpretations of other Wolfe
works but I really, really, REALLY disagree with this one.

>It stands "on a manicured green lawn"--the carpet.

This seems to be the whole of your evidence that Wolfe intend us to infer
that area the maze occupies is like a living room; not exactly conclusive,
I'd say. My living room, for one, doesn't have a carpet.

>The various "lamp posts

This is inconsistent. The dead tree trunk functions just like the lamp
posts, to cast its shadow to make up part of the maze, so to say that the
lamp posts symbolize the 'works' of the tv and the tree trunk symbolizes
its container, the console, is so arbitrary as to be nonsensical.

>end) "and indeed from minute to minute." (the screen is alway changing).

This could apply to almost ANY image we see not just a tv screen, in fact
an analogy could be made between this shifting maze and just about any
process that experiences or produces change. If Wolfe really intended to
symbolize tv here, why didn't he work in some clever reference to the
fractions of a second occupied by the "cathode rays" in scanning the screen.

>western, the sit-com, the hospital and cop shows.

Wolfe is talking about people solving a maze from an aerial photograph of
the maze, rather than by actually walking the maze themselves here. In
other words, he is contrasting interacting with a real object (such as the
solar labyrinth) with dealing only with a convenient image (the
photograph). This associates the maze with the real world and contrasts it
with images of reality, such as tv.

>satellite and cable technology fees.

This is a maze made up of *light* and shadow; it seems only natural to use
statutes of light-bringing deities to cast shadows that make up part of the
maze barriers. It's the kind of ironic wit that Wolfe often employs through
his characters.

Your attempt to equate the inclusion of a few gods/goddesses that very few
people worship these days (at least among tv viewers) in the maze with the
admittedly almost religious frenzy with which many tv viewers treat the
medium rings false.

>acquaintance who doesn't own a tv?)

I certainly won't argue that tv can entrap, but the more apt and more often
used parallel is with drugs and addiction. The oddity in the passages you
quote is the qualification "adult". In my experience children are as likely
to be entrapped by tv as adults, if not much more so. If you can come up
with a convincing reason that this distinction should be made if Wolfe
really means to symbolize tv by the solar labyrinth, then it would
certainly help your case, but I don't believe you can.

>some children escape the labyrinth).

Again, an inconsistency. Why should the Minotaur be associated only with
the shadows of the maze and not its light if it is meant to symbolize the
deleterious effects of television (symbolized, you say, by the whole maze,
light and shadow alike)?

>"Glasses help" to place you in the maze (especially if like Gene Wolfe you

Glasses help you see, if you need them, whether you are watching tv or
participating in any real activity such as walking a maze.

>interests determine maze design/tv programming.

Mr. Smith, being the maze's designer, seems quite un-Nielsen-like in his
creativity and lack of passivity.

>who will play with you when no one else will.

This last paragraph seems just SO wrong headed to me that it is the real
reason I decided to refute your whole analysis. First of all, the child is
playing with Mr. Smith, so is he also supposed to represent tv as well as
the maze? Again, when has anyone seen a group of children watching tv lose
interest one by one and drift away until only one poor pathetic soul
continues to watch? Certainly it happens, but with tv it's the exception
while with the maze it's the rule.

Solving the solar labyrinth is *difficult*, it takes *mental effort*; this
is why most of the kids give up. Whereas the essence of tv is its
effortlessness; it offers no challenge, you don't have to think at all.

The one point I will concede to your analysis is that it does immediately
explain Wolfe's mysterious comments about the sinister aspects of the story
that are so far in the background that most people don't notice them. You
state as much in the exchange below.

Robert Borski replied:
>I thought it was pretty much how tv insidiously takes over some people's
>lives; i.e., we become so enchanted by the maze, we're reluctant to leave
>and thus will always be vicarious "armchair adventurers" rather than actual
>participants in life. I find this notion scary, anyway.

I can't explain what Wolfe means by this, but I can't accept your
explanation as I'm sure I've made all too plain. One thing I did notice on
rereading "A Solar Labyrinth" to prepare this response is that when Mr.
Smith and the solitary child are "playing in the sunshine" at the end of
the story it is approaching noon, at which time the maze will be insoluble.
Why the maze should be insoluble when the shadows are shortest I don't
know, but the child will be trapped and perhaps the Minotaur can pounce at
this point. I have always associated Mr. Smith with the Minotaur, although
I can give no textual evidence for this.

In _The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction_ (CD-ROM) John Clute and
Peter Nicholls state quite baldly "'A Solar Labyrinth' (1983) was a
metafiction about the entire Book [of the New Sun]." Does anyone know if
their thinking on this point derived from any support Wolfe might have
given this idea?

William Ansley

---

From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 00:29:48 +0000

This is Sean Whalen (prion).

When I saw the debate about A Solar Labyrinth, I reread it, keeping
the previous discussions in mind.  It seems to be about books (or
fantasy books), rather than television.

At the beginning, the narrator says that few mazes are now built, and
those that are are built of cheap and unoriginal material.  This seems
 to be a comment on the quality and number of enjoyable (or SF/F) books.

The things that the maze is built of are the elements of the setting,
plot, etc.  The shadows that the people must traverse and that change
with the sunlight represent the story of the book as it is read. 
Successfully completing the maze means you have understood the message.

When adults get stuck in the maze, it means that they cannot
understand the message of the story.  Children, if they get stuck,
know that they can just walk away and come back to it to try again
(they can stop reading and read it again, no one can no everything
about a story upon first reading it).

Since children with glasses are often perceived as bookworms, etc.,
there is the passage that says, "glasses help."

The man called Mr. Smith is the author.

Every detail here may not be exactly correct, but this was my general
impression.  Anyone have a more detailed analysis?

prion
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

---

From: Jason Voegele <voegele.6 at osu.edu>
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 08:51:08 +0000

>their thinking on this point derived from any support Wolfe might have

RE: "A Solar Labyrinth" as New Sun metafiction--well the one obvious point
supporting this is the title, since TBOTNS is indeed a labyrinth for the
mind, relating of course the sun.  This metafiction idea also ties in well
with prion's theory concerning this story (i.e. that it's about fantasy
novels).

Jason Voegele

---

From: Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 09:51:19 +0000

>the background that few readers notice it at all"? (Introduction to STOREYS

The Minotaur hides in the shadows. But at noon, there are no shadows.

SBear.

---

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 09:42:20 +0000

> about a story upon first reading it).

This is my favorite reading of the story to date.  So if mazes in general
are SF/F, then the Solar Labyrinth is Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.  Making
Mr. Smith into Wolfe himself.  But what do you suppose the Minotaur
corresponds to?  And what of the famous "sinister element"?

> The Minotaur hides in the shadows. But at noon, there are no shadows.

Oooh!  That lit a bulb in my head, although it may be a dim one.  The "at
noon there are no shadows" has an eschatological ring to my ear. 

Whereas now some things are veiled in shadows, when the New Sun fully
appears, we shall see clearly, be set free from the labyrinth, and the
secrets hidden in the shadows will be exposed for all to see.  Or evil
hidden in the shadows will be exposed and wither in the light. 

Only problem is that I don't see how this fits with the theory that the
maze is Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.  Surely Wolfe doesn't imagine we're
awaiting the Day of Resurrection in order to finally learn Hethor's true
identity? 

-Rostrum

---

From: Mark Millman <mark_millman at hmco.com>
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 10:39:32 +0000

Robert Borski wrote:
>> I thought it was pretty much how tv insidiously
>> takes over some people's lives; i.e., we become
>> so enchanted by the maze, we're reluctant to
>> leave and thus will always be vicarious "armchair
>> adventurers" rather than actual participants in
>> life. I find this notion scary, anyway.

to which William Ansley replied:
> I can't explain what Wolfe means by this, but I
> can't accept your explanation as I'm sure I've
> made all too plain. One thing I did notice on
> rereading "A Solar Labyrinth" to prepare this
> response is that when Mr. Smith and the solitary
> child are "playing in the sunshine" at the end of
> the story it is approaching noon, at which time the
> maze will be insoluble.  Why the maze should be
> insoluble when the shadows are shortest I don't
> know, but the child will be trapped and perhaps
> the Minotaur can pounce at this point. I have
> always associated Mr. Smith with the Minotaur,
> although I can give no textual evidence for this.

> But at noon, there are no shadows.

The maze may be insoluble at noon because, in the ideal (i.e., equatorial)
situation at least, the maze disappears at noon.  If its not there, it
can't be solved.

And the maze hides the the solvers from the Minotaur just as much as it
hides the Minotaur from the solvers.  When the maze disappears, not only is
the Minotaur revealed, but he is also unconstrained by stealth or walls.

Mark Millman

---

From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 1998 21:59:59 +0000

is about religion. Mark virtually makes the point for me. 
	A "smith" is a maker; He is God.
	Mazes precede human existence -- first sentence of the story. I suspect
Wolfe might suggest that the Trinity Himself is the ur-labyrinth.
	All kinds of religious symbols mark the labyrinth:
lampposts - shed light, truth.
pillar-box - a mailbox, for the Word, for prayer, communication.
fountains - for baptism, the Spirit.
yawl - ship - the church.
dead tree with roses - the rose-decorated cross.
	The shadows cast by these objects - what they reveal as symbols - create
the maze through which human beings are to travel: human biographies. The
shadows are the ink of God.
	The Sun constantly changes the labyrinth: People have to be in touch with
God in order to walk the maze and not get trapped. But they have to be
constantly and fully in touch with God, and only one "child" has ever been.
	You can walk out at any time -- if you don't want salvation. Free will.
	Most people don't leave, because most people are, one way or another,
religious.
	Mr. Smith brings the favored guest -- calling and election by God, the
point at which God alerts a person to the need for salvation.
	Sometimes Smith walks with his guest, sometimes he leaves the guest to
explore. Sometime God is near us, sometimes He seems to leave us alone.
	Smith explains that He set up the pre-Christian gods, such as Diana. All
is under His control, including the feathered SERPENT Quetzalcoatl.
	NOBODY makes it through the maze, except for one solitary child, Jesus.
Sinful man tries, but fails. Only this Child can draw Arthur's sword from
the stone.
	As Mark points out, when history reaches its pre-determined end, the
antichrist Minotaur will be revealed and will have his brief hour. That is
the sinister element, I take it.

	I might add that Wolfe really likes this story, and there is an audiotape
of him reading it. When asked about the stories he likes, Wolfe usually
mentions his religious allegories. 

Jim Jordan

---

From: Marc Coleman <marc.coleman at mwcia.org>
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 08:20:23 +0000

I reread it last night and I like your take.  Is anybody else a big fan of
"On The Train"? "the telephone poles reel like drunks"        marc

At 09:59 PM 7/6/98 -0500, you wrote:
>	Nutria here. My take on "A Solar Labyrinth" is, as you can guess, that it

---

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 11:17:24 +0000

> Wolfe might suggest that the Trinity Himself is the ur-labyrinth.

[...]

> constantly and fully in touch with God, and only one "child" has ever been.
[...]
> Sinful man tries, but fails. Only this Child can draw Arthur's sword from

[more comparisons snipped]

My problem with this analysis is that, if "A Solar Labyrinth" is an
attempt to capture something of the Christian life in a story, then I
don't think it's a very good story.  

Mazes are puzzles.  Something to be solved with the intellect.  The
Christian life is not something to be "solved."  It's not about the
intellect but about moral character and having the humility to accept
grace.  I think the equation of mazes with tricky stories fits much
better. 

I also don't think the most interesting part of your comparison, the
"solitary child," is supported by the text.  I don't have it in front of
me, but it seems to be twisting the sense to insist that the occasional
solitary child who sticks with the maze is meant to always be the same
child.  And does it say that the child actually solves the maze?  I got
the sense of several solitary children over time, each of whom experience
something, possibly sinister, possibly involving Mr. Smith and/or the
Minotaur, after everyone else has gone.

My main objection is one that I'm having trouble putting into words.  When
I read the comparison someone else made that mazes=stories and the solar
labyrinth=BotNS, I said to myself, "Ah!  How clever of Wolfe.  Reading his
stories *is* like navigating a maze, and few manage to find their way!"
But I don't get that sense from your interpretation.  I don't see what
clever or interesting thing the story has to say about the Christian life. 
And I usually like the religious elements in Wolfe's stories. 

-Rostrum

---

From: Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 15:27:49 +0000

At 11:17 1998-07-07 -0400, Rostrum wrote:
...
>Minotaur, after everyone else has gone.

Somewhere on the Web there used to be an interview where someone asked
Wolfe about this, and he confirmed your sense. That's where I got the
idea of the Minotaur no longer being hidden in the shadows. I searched
for the page before posting, but it seems to have disappeared.

SBear.

---

From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 15:53:19 +0000

>don't think it's a very good story.  

	I don't know if it is the "Christian life" per se, but the human life. But
in terms of the Christian life, the unsolvable maze is EXACTLY what Solomon
describes in Ecclesiastes as life "under the sun." In fact, now that I
think of it, I'll bet you anything that Ecclesiastes inspired this story.

>grace.  I think the equation of mazes with tricky stories fits much

	Well, it could be both, and probably is. Recall how Wolfe is "God" in "The
Last Thrilling Wonder Story." And while I cannot recall any other titles,
I'm pretty sure that the Author // God motif is found in other Wolfe
stories as well. Thus, I'd suggest that "A Solar Labyrinth" can be
interpreted either way.
	But consider: If Severian is walking a maze, he is certainly going through
maturation and conversion in his life. If "Solar Lab" is to be tied to the
Severian Cycle, then it IS about the course of life, in one way.
>Minotaur, after everyone else has gone.

	I agree that the text does not say that the child solves the maze, or that
there has only ever been one child. I sense that from the feel of the story
and its overall religious gestalt (if my interpretation is correct). It's a
bit like Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." If someone wants
to insist that the house in the village is not the church, that the owner
of the woods is not God, and that the darkest evening of the year is not
Christmas Eve, well one cannot PROVE him wrong -- but the poem's imagery
certainly thrusts the sensitive reader in the direction of a religious
interpretation. I guess that since the "history" of the labyrinth only runs
from sunrise to noon, the fact that only one child is left indicates only
one child in the whole history. 
	And, btw, I think equating the Minotaur with Mr. Smith is like saying that
the Ruler in "Westwind" might be an evil character. It's just not what
Wolfe does. In the Severian cycle, you've got both "angels" and "demons"
operating, and they are not the same "people." The Minotaur interrupts Mr.
Smith. He is the Entity that people must escape by exiting the maze, and
Mr. Smith helps them as they walk to do so; or decide not to try; or decide
to be rescued by the cloud.
	Remember, we might equate King Minos with the Minotaur, but not Daedalus.
Daedalus built the maze, but the Minotaur was Minos's idea. Smith is said
to be Daedalus, not Minos.
	But especially, since the shadow casting objects, which create the writing
of God (the ink of God) are all religious objects or symbols --
particularly the religious symbols Wolfe himself employs -- it seems to me
that a religious interpretation cannot be avoided.
	Does this help any? What do you think? I'm open to suggestion, but the
more I think about it, the more sense my interpretation makes to me --
which just means I need to get out more, I suppose!

Jim Jordan

---

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 18:15:53 +0000

On Tue, 7 Jul 1998, Jim Jordan answered:

>        Well, it could be both, and probably is. Recall how Wolfe is
>"God" in "The Last Thrilling Wonder Story." And while I cannot recall any other
>titles, I'm pretty sure that the Author // God motif is found in other
>Wolfe stories as well. Thus, I'd suggest that "A Solar Labyrinth" can be
>interpreted either way. 

I don't think "A Solar Labyrinth" is about the Severian Cycle, I think
it's about *reading* the Severian Cycle.  It's about figuring out a
puzzle.  But I don't think "the course of life" is very much like figuring
out puzzles. 

> and its overall religious gestalt (if my interpretation is correct). 

[comparison to Frost's poem snipped]

I just don't get that same sense, but then I never noticed the religious
themes you see in "Stopping By the Woods" (and which, now that you point
them out, seem like a plausible reading of the poem).

> that a religious interpretation cannot be avoided.

I agree that the "labyrinth=fiction" theory doesn't yet account for the
Minotaur.  But I disagree that Smith as author/creator of the maze is
necessarily a benevolent character, even if he isn't equal to the
Minotaur.  

-Rostrum

---

From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 01:20:14 +0000

Earlier I (William Ansley) wrote (slightly edited from my original post:
>In _The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction_ (CD-ROM) John Clute
>states quite baldly "'A Solar Labyrinth' (1983) was a

First I would like to say how much I appreciate the effort that Damien
Broderick and Michael Andre-Driussi went to in attempting to find an answer
to this question.

I certainly can see some evidence for the metafiction theory: the
fountains, ship (yawl) and dead tree covered with roses do seem to be, as
Jim Jordan noted and as I had previously though myself, strong links to
TBotNS. In this reading (which certainly isn't mutually exclusive with the
labyrinth as religion or the labyrinth as fiction/fantasy fiction readings)
it seems to me the section on the children is strongly associated with the
book of gold section of _Shadow_ (ch. 6, p. 45, Orb ed.).

On the very first page of the first essay in _The Castle of the Otter_,
"The Feast of Saint Catherine," (p. 211 of _Castle of Days_ in which TCotO
is included) Wolfe says:

-----------
In the first volume of _The Book of the New Sun_, the old librarian, Master
Ultan, says, "Such a child eventually discovers, on some low but obscure
shelf, _The Book of Gold_. You have never seen this book, and you will
never see it, being past the age at which it is met."

[Wolfe continues the quotation for a few lines which I omit.]

And in the fourth volume, Severian muses. "Perhaps I have contrived for
someone _The Book of Gold_."

In all modesty I think we have, Severian and I. Perhaps not for any great
number of persons, but for a few. ...
-----------

Wolfe goes on to say that he has written TCotO because "the next best thing
to _The Book of Gold_ is a book about _The Book of Gold_."

He also strongly implies, if he does not state, that Jack Vance's _The
Dying Earth_ was TBoG for him. (For me, I suppose it would have to be
Stanley G. Weinbaum's collection _A Martian Odyssey_. Certainly it is what
made me a lifelong sf reader.)

So (wrenching myself back to the subject at hand) the children who like the
maze in ASL are those for whom TBotNS is TBoG. This makes, to me at least,
the ultimate image of ASL: "Mr. Smith and one solitary child still playing
in the sunshine" quite charming. (But of course it ignores that pesky
"sinister element." Then again, whose word do we have to go on that there
really is a sinister element in ASL? Gene Wolfe's! Can we trust him? I say
"No!" Or maybe the sinister element is that the kids will grow up to spend
far too much time on the internet analyzing all of Gene Wolfe's stuff,
especially TBotNS, to death and beyond.)

My main problem with this reading has always been this line in ASL: "I have
heard that a certain wealthy citizen has not only designed and built a new
maze, but has invented a new _kind_ of maze, perhaps the first since the
end of the Age of Myth." At first I thought, surely GW (since, in this
reading, Smith is GW) doesn't think TBotNS is a new kind of sf novel. I
know he doesn't suffer from false modesty, but really, that would be too
much!

But the more I think about it, perhaps he does. And (especially after the
time I have spent on this list) perhaps, if he does, he is right.

William Ansley