Messianic

Jim Henley · 20 Nov 1999, 21:33 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "Jim Henley" <jlhenley at erols.com>
Subject: RE: (urth) Messianic
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 21:33:10
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0490 at digest.urth.net>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: urth-errors at lists.best.com [mailto:urth-errors at lists.best.com]On
> Behalf Of Ori Kowarsky
>
> However, if it is
> correct that Gene Wolfe's premise is that the human urge to conquer and
> dominate is incorrigible, then why do the Hieros leave the
> humans on other
> planets to work their will as they may?

An excellent question! It relates to a new thread I'll want people's views
on soon.

> What evidence do
> we have -- other than giving Yesod the "benefit of the doubt" --
> that this
> bloody bioengineering program is at all justifiable?  And at the
> end of the
> day, how can you logically say that the wholesale replacement of
> humanity by
> a different type of lifeform constitutes the *redemption* of humanity?

Now wait a second - this seems to require the following:

1) That _everybody_ dies when the New Sun comes.

2) That the Green Man's race was engineered by the heiros.

3) That the Green Man directly succeeds the exterminated humans of Urth.

Or failing all that,

4) That the Green Guys kill off all the pink, tan and brown guys in short
order.

I may well have missed something, but

1) I don't assume that everyone (except for the two chicks and the fat guy)
on every Urth continent perished in the deluge. While _someone_ certainly
landed two new humans, it beggars belief that something so -- macroscopic
as a flood could be relied on to get every last one of the bastards.

2) I read the Green Man's account of himself as suggesting something that
humanity (eventually) does to/for itself.

3) The guy Sev meets on his return to Ushas at the very end of Urth seems
to be not the least bit green. This supports the idea that the
"replacement" of human by "verdant" is no direct thing.

4) This just isn't what Green Guys are about, is it?

FWIW, yet another appearance in SF of the "humankind is a pollution on the
cosmos" bit sticks in my craw. Seems oddd to find it in even the most
"eccentrically" conservative, heirarchical and grave author. But Wolfe
never asked if I was going to like it ahead of time.

Best,

Jim
 *****************************************
"We can't be certain who the villains are
cause everyone's so pretty"
              -- Sheryl Crow

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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