The green man is a fake

Jerry Friedman · 17 Jan 2011, 16:20 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:20:57 -0800 (PST)
Subject: (urth) The green man is a fake
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W20344D66F1500A75A367F0CFF40 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W20344D66F1500A75A367F0CFF40 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <915491.4949.qm at web114717.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

> From: Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>

...

> >Jerry Friedman: I can't put much stock in his saying "a great liar",  since he 
>has another reason 
>
> >to say that, and I don't see why he'd give  Severian even that much of a 
hint.
> 
> What other reason? Why would ANYONE  say they were a liar? As we are at least 
>partially aware, he
> says he is a  liar because Gene Wolfe makes him say so. It is Gene Wolfe giving 
>us a hint, as  a
> good storyteller/puzzle maker must. The only people who say they are liars  
>are..well....liars. 
>
> Liars hoping that a bit of honesty will seduce a  perceptive listener into 
>believing the lie anyway 
>
> (which is what has  happened here).**
...

The other possible understanding of his comment might be "It should be obvious 
that
my fortune-telling will be lies, since my foot's caught in a trap.  If you don't 
want to
hear lies, we can talk about what's important to me--my foot's caught in a 
trap."

Jerry Friedman

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