Grand Unified Theory

Dave Tallman · 30 Aug 2010, 04:54 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:54:32 -0600
Subject: (urth) Grand Unified Theory
Message-ID: <AANLkTimv1FObxSOqq4kTjCT1xvcDDjYnPeesCv0g13+w at mail.gmail.com>

James Wynn wrote:

Oh no! In a Wolfe story I must insist that if a misidentification

occurs, it is accurate in some way. Yes, there is the clone theory

available. I used to like it a great deal. I still think it is

applicable in several instances. But the Rajan-as-Pike is appealing too.

I like it because it would answer what became of the Rajan -- to at

least some degree. It turns a very strange ending to the Book of the

Short Sun into a very Wolfean ending. I mean it turns it into an ending

like that in "Peace" where you get to the end and say WTH? And then you

think about the story and realize that the answers you were expecting at

the end have already been answered. Knowing that the Rajan can

Time-travel causes me to think we also should expect to find in these

seven volumes, under other identities, Seawrack, Nettle, and Marble who

left with him for the Whorl.
>

 I know there there are Wolfean endings that just loop back on
themselves, like *Peace*, *Pirate Freedom*, and perhaps *An Evil Guest
*(my "Mysterious Margaret" theory). In these cases there is a sense of
futility in having to repeat the same steps with no real progress.
Another example would be *The Fifth Head of Cerberus*, which has no
time-travel but no progress from one generation to the next. There are
also stories where time-travel is used heavily but the net result is
significant change, hopefully for the better: *Free Live Free* and
*The Book of the New Sun* are examples.

I see the Long and Short Sun series as the latter type. Silk/Rajan
makes moral progress through the books, ending so good he frightens
his sons sometimes. He teaches like Jesus in New Viron, then goes back
to the Whorl to lead and teach them as they move on to new worlds. It
ends with the five-fold blessing of "Good fishing!" as Silk and his
disciples become fishers of men.

On the other hand,m I like that you have gone out on a limb and made a
new, testable prediction with your theory. You expect to see Seawrack,
Nettle, and Marble under new identities in these volumes, as well as
the Rajan. I don't see any evidence of this at the moment, but perhaps
you can find some. I just can't imagine that the Rajan as Hyacinth's
father is one of them. She calls him a "pig's arse" (EftLS p. 59) and
I agree with that assessment.
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