The green man is fake

Gerry Quinn · 17 Jan 2011, 01:21 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:21:32 -0000
Subject: (urth) The green man is fake
References: <SNT123-W61147465C4658444B748E8CFF50 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4433CB81B52240DDBE0B6B83E717C583@jill>


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com>
>>Gerry Quinn:
>>The laughter is easily explained as expressing the Green Man's
>>disappointment and despair after he had briefly hoped in Severian, and 
>>then
>>found him to be an ignorant primitive babbling about a New Sun of which 
>>the
>>green Man had no knowledge (because in his time it is forgotten).  And he
>>never promises to rescue Severrian.
>
> This "easy explanation" doesn't wash with me. There are plenty of 
> disappoined characters
> in BotNS. They don't laugh inhumanly with a sound worse than the alzabo 
> which hasn't even been
> introduced in the story yet (except as an analeptic). The Alzabo is 
> arguably depicted more hideously
> than anything else in the story- an ugly, putrid, scavenger/predator which 
> eats you whole then speaks
> in your voice. Now why would Gene Wolfe want to compare the green man to 
> this creature?

I dont see a need for another explanation.  Severian often goes on like 
this, for example insisting that a guy with two heads is the most cosmically 
amazing thing he's ever heard of.

> (p.s. the green man does promise to save Severian, as noted above).

So I see.  He doesn't really owe him, though.

- Gerry Quinn

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