lupine crisis of faith

Lee Berman · 29 Dec 2010, 23:31 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:31:51 -0500
Subject: (urth) lupine crisis of faith
Message-ID: <SNT123-W3435DBFC7F2159A5ECF4A4CF020 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: I don't think I'd draw so close a correlation between Fifth Head and 
>Short Sun. Wolfe is reusing parts, but I don't think the Neighbors/Inhumi are Shadow 
>Children/abos.

Yes, sorry if I overstated the connection. I don't really think Shadow Children are 
literally the same as Inhumi. They are only thematically very similar. Once Wolfe was
asked if St. Croix/Ste. Anne were in the same universe as Urth and he answered either,
"I don't know" or "I'm not sure".

>Son O' Witz: Don't sweat it Lee. Urth ain't Green or Blue.

LMAO. Hey, I'd only really be sweating it if any of them were Earth.

I'm interested in Marc's theory but I'm not convinced Urth is Blue or Green. Nessus
may exist on more than one of them (perhaps all three?) but I don't think that is 
the central issue any more than I think these books were written to focus on astronomy.

I think the primary point is the religious philosophy of demons (which includes false gods, 
angels and demiurges). So, I am open to all evidence suggesting that demons inhabit Urth,
in the form of Inhumi, aliens imitating human form or giant blobs in the sea (or space) who 
can pinch off human-shaped agents for themselves.

In other words I think Gene Wolfe is like Aunt Jeannine. He is a man wishing he could believe 
in demons as a way of explaining the horror and cruelty he sees in the world around him.  So 
while in disguise ("Veiled") as an author he is willing to treat them as real and explore the 
consequences.

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