Digest urth.v019.n004

Jay Lake · 28 Sep 1998, 05:52 · from urth-v0019.mbox · original

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From: "Jay Lake" <jlake at jlake.com>
Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v019.n004
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 05:52:40
Message-ID: <urth-v0019-0026 at digest.urth.net>
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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

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