bluegreenandcerberus

Adrian Robert · 29 Aug 2005, 05:49 · from 2005-August.txt.gz

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From: arobert at cogsci.ucsd.edu (Adrian Robert)
Date: Mon Aug 29 05:49:26 2005
Subject: (urth) bluegreenandcerberus
In-Reply-To: <BAY102-F326DE059454525B7E0B13286AF0 at phx.gbl>
References: <BAY102-F326DE059454525B7E0B13286AF0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <18E9D656-CA39-48EA-8248-B3F6048CC75C at cogsci.ucsd.edu>

> Walter Read said:
>
>> Have you read The Book oh the Short Sun?!?!?! have you read 5th  
>> head of cerberus?!?!?! well do you know the connection?? I just  
>> fininshed cerberus and im shocked..
...

On Aug 29, 2005, at 5:53 AM, Chris wrote:

> http://www.urth.net/whorl/archives/v0006/0473.shtml

[more archive URLs removed..]

I realize this topic has been discussed (to death?) by the list  
before and also that Wolfe's own answers have tended to quash the  
idea of a "reality" behind the parallel, but the coincidences are  
interesting enough in their own right to be worth listing out  
anyhow.  So here are the parallels I've noticed between Blue / Green  
and St. Croix / St. Anne.  (Earth/Lune and/or Ushas have also come  
into these discussions, but those parallels, to the extent they  
exist, are of a different order than these..)

+ Both systems are binary planets approximately the same distance
   from one another.  St. Croix and Blue are predominately water
   planets; St. Anne and Green predominately vegetated land.

- However, Green is portrayed as consisting largely of jungle,
   whereas St. Anne is lauded for its "meadowmeres", and 'A Story'
   describes a variety of different terrains, none of them jungle.

+ Green and St. Anne are both the home of a shape-shifting race with
   non-human characteristics.

- However the nonhuman aspects differ -- reptilian and blood-sucking
   in Green's case, while the St. Anne abos have their brains in
   their thoraxes and moreover they were said to be capable of
   assuming forms far more varied than the inhumi.

+ In addition, St. Green/Blue were home to a second race, more
   intelligent, or at least more socially adaptable or having a
   better affinity with humans than the first.  St. Anne (we don't
   know about St. Croix) was also home to a second race, also with a
   stronger connection to humans.  At one point in 'A Story' it is
   even said that they *were* human.

- The 'neighbors' are said to have 4-legged / 4-armed bodies,
   obviously different from the shrunken humanoid bodies of the
   shadow children.  They have mostly left Green/Blue where they were
   native, whereas the shadow children were said to be immigrants who
   came to St. Anne.

+ Both the neighbors and the shadow children used the distinctive term
   "starcrosser" to refer to spaceships.

Those are the ones I come up with.  Can anyone think of any I  
missed?  Granted, there are differences, but the parallels are so  
striking as to seem hardly incidental.  However, Green / Blue is in  
the incomprehensibly far future, while _Fifth Head_ seems to be mere  
centuries beyond the present day.  Can the histories be reconciled?   
Given such a span of time, almost anything could be proposed of  
course, but what about something minimal and plausible?

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