Dionysus, the Mausoleum

Lee Berman · 21 Dec 2010, 12:41 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:41:01 -0500
Subject: (urth) Dionysus, the Mausoleum
Message-ID: <SNT123-W80C80BB09B5696946E02DCF1A0 at phx.gbl>

>Gwern Branwen: So what am I supposed to do with this large comprehensive
>not-obviously-wrong theory? It's almost certainly wrong since only a
>few can be right and we have proposed hundreds of interpretations of
>parts. Basically, the answer is ignore it......So, silence it is.

Gwern, I both agree and disagree. In the history of this List there have
been hundreds of theories proposed. I don't agree that only a few can be 
right.

What I think we have is like the parable of the elephant and the six 
blind men describing it by parts (it's like a "hose", "spear", "fan", "wall" 
"tree trunk","rope"). Nobody has been able to singularly comprehend Gene Wolfe, so the
only comprehensive answer must come from an assemblage of different theories which 
seem incompatible on the surface.

I think you are right that when a theory seems utterly useless: "its like a hedge 
trimmer!"; the best, most polite response is silence. 

This is not only polite but allows one to stay open to insight from others that one might 
not initially grasp. Are there ways in which an elephant resembles a hedge trimmer? Could
such an awareness improve one's understanding of an elephant?

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