Urth - Geology vs Humanity

O'Donnell, Tim BOSI · 03 Dec 2008, 12:13 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: Tim.O'Donnell at bankofscotland.ie (O'Donnell, Tim (BOSI))
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 12:13:53 -0000
Subject: (urth) Urth - Geology vs Humanity
Message-ID: <63FB9AC7E0AEC7459DBCC99DC44247CA01F6B013 at BOSIDEXDB.Bankofscotland.ie>

Hi fellow Tim!
While I think the central question of how far in the future of the book is unknowable (I don't think Wolfe knows based on interview)
there are two strong options emerging - a several thousand years and several million years.
I guess which one you choose is based on your inclination - I would never have gone with an artistic argument about the book, I would
lean towards the scientific possibilities in the book.  But I see your viewpoint as valid also and I am glad you mentioned it.

I guess the question that is emerging for me is Is it important how far in the future the book is set?
Vance in the Dying Earth series never gave any clues to the passage of time and thus escaped this trap.
Wolfe in scattering some clues for the reader has dug himself a hole (or built a cliff-face) his readers are struggling to escape.
I am currently reading The Books of the Short Sun (import only in Ireland, so frustrating!).  
I came across a line last night that made me smile:
"As with so many other riddles, it is easy to speculate but impossible to know which speculation is correct - if any are."
On Blue's Waters, Ch 6.

__________________________________________________________________________
Tim Walters 
> It's also debatable that Urt's core really is cooling. The learned Ultan
> and Palaemon seem to get most of their education from the piles of books
> in the Library, and may have no way to know which books have outdated
> theories; they may have enjoyed Bellamy's _Looking Backward_and gotten
> the notion that the refrigeration of the earth is a foregone conclusion
>   in the wisdom of the ancients.

What's the artistic point of the cliff scene, world-famous for its
evocation of deep time, if not to show that a gazillion years have passed?

What's the artistic point of mentioning the cooling of Urth's core, if not
to show that a gazillion years have passed?

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