This week in Google Alerts

Lee Berman · 05 Nov 2011, 21:48 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2011 17:48:50 -0400
Subject: (urth) This week in Google Alerts
Message-ID: <SNT123-W236238E9C2DACAB1469CF4CFDB0 at phx.gbl>

>Nick Lee: Dionysus/Phanes is in every book Wolfe has written. 

Now, THAT'S a statement!

>James Wynn: ... And, even more so, when we have people who adamantly 

>refuse to acknowledge that Dionysus is an important touchstone even 

>in Return To The Whorl, let alone the rest of the series...well, you 

>have to set proper expectations.

I think it is important to recognize that not everyone comes to this

forum as a scholar. Some are pure observers, some are jesters and, of

course, some are warriors. Surely each plays his/her important part.

I think Gerry is a good example of a warrior. Notice his recent invocation 

of metaphor in doing battle against Marc's Green is Urth concept. Poetic and 

literary interpretation are in his tool kit when they serve his purpose.

But blunt, literal interpretations will be used when he feels they would are 

the appropriate weapon- seen in the example of insisting Silent/Silver Silk 

cannot allude to him being an aspect of a Dionysian-like god, The Outsider, 

unless Silk is shown to have horns and cloven hoofs.

>...well, you have to set proper expectations. I can understand 
>your frustration in that you believe that you have discovered a 
>revealing understanding of a quite opaque story, and you would have 
>liked some help, but all you get is hand-waving.

I apologize for the presumption but I've found myself in a similar position. 

The warriors are often quite skilled at directing the battle to small, less 

important parts of a theory, effectively distracting attention from the larger 

application and validity. Just part of the expected obstacles as James suggests.

How often have I been dragged into pointless discussions about monkeys when 

the important concept on Urth (and the Whorl and Blue/Green) is the idea of a 

larger god/being dividing him/itself into various smaller portions which are 

distributed among lesser, smaller versions each with a different name or epithet 

which reflects something about their unique aspect.

This, of course, is why Dionysus is important to this story. What other pagan

god (other than Brahma?) did this. Isn't that what makes Dionysus an important

precursor to Christ and the Trinity more than, say, Zeus?

I guess the cool thing about the Whorl and Pas is that we are able to get a real

physical view of the divided portions or pieces of a demiurge, as certain 

characters hold the electronic cards in their hands. How those pieces get distributed

into the personality and identity of our characters is, of course, veiled and confusing. 

But I have little doubt the divide and redistribution process is meant to show us what 

is going on physically and spiritually in other characters including Abaia, Juturna, 

Tzadkiel, Father Inire, The Mother, Seawrack, Great Scylla, Neighbors, SilkHOrn etc.

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