More on Frog and Fish & Ymar

David Stockhoff · 14 Jun 2011, 12:26 · from 2011-June.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:26:26 -0400
Subject: (urth) More on Frog and Fish & Ymar
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W3B83B1A86514409E59B34CF680 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W3B83B1A86514409E59B34CF680 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4DF75372.4090701 at verizon.net>

Yes. Wolfe would be a pretty bad engineer if he believed our physical 
laws to be mere shadows of the True Laws that rule a higher existence. 
(Consider how you would feel if your doctor told you that.) Or so I 
would think.

In fact, one might argue that to even attempt to "realistically" depict 
a "higher" universe is to bring it down to our level to begin with, 
putting them on a par with one another. The Celtic/pagan otherworld is a 
far more useful fictional mode than the Christian, however much they 
have in common. So this "equal validity" is crucial to Wolfe's fiction 
in more than one way.

On 6/14/2011 8:16 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>> Stanislaus B: The mythical worldview is that there is one superior world of gods
>> - the True World, and the Secondary World in which we live. The true patterns
> >from the True World are repeated many times in the Secondary World - but
>> each time they are distorted by the matter and accidents, so the
>> repetitions are never exact. For that reason Poetry is more true than History.
>
> This sentiment claws to the heart of the Sun Series for me, especially BotNS.
>
> It may be that Wolfe considers the problem of which world to consider "superior"
> and "True" to be relativistic. That is, from a religious/mythological perspective,
> the world of God(s) is the true one and our human world is a shadowy created
> reflection of that true world. While from a humanistic/scientific view, our world
> is the real one and the stories of God and gods is a shadowy reflection of our
> reality.
>
> The circularity Wolfe gives humans and Hierogrammates in BotNS suggests to me he
> considers both perspectives to have equal footing and validity. 		 	   		
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