First Exodus theory revised

Lee Berman · 11 Feb 2011, 13:40 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:40:32 -0500
Subject: (urth) First Exodus theory revised
Message-ID: <SNT123-w3286EA1163A6618F1499BFCFEF0 at phx.gbl>

>Gerry Quinn: I really don't agree with this.  He has a dream or waking dream in which 
>images of various women run together (I think women he associates with sex 
>or sexuality).  In this dream he also sees the Outsider as a wooden toy, and 
>a polished tabletop as the sea.  I don't think there's any reason to take it 
>literally that all the women in his dream are the same woman, any more than 
>that the Outsider is a wooden toy.

I can see why Marc has trouble with your theory Gerry. As a self-acknowledged mystery
writer, Gene Wolfe has a special place in his work for dream sequences and 
stories/myths/legends. I can't see him using a dream sequence to reveal something as
banal as the fact that Silk is a man and has had sexual thoughts about various women.
We already knew that. The dream must be there to tell us things we don't know.

I find pointed significance in the metaphors of the wooden toy Outsider and the tabletop
sea which presage revelations in Short Sun and hearken back to mysteries in BotNS. I 
would expect revelations of similar importance with regard to the women in the dream. I 
think similar importance can be found in all Wolfean dreams, legends and stories.

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