silk, the dancing toy, gods in the tunnels

Marc Aramini · 27 Aug 2013, 13:42 · from 2013-August.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at yahoo.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 06:42:00 -0700
Subject: (urth) silk, the dancing toy, gods in the tunnels
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"Things weaker than our words for them" - I have found this quote actually quite invaluable in approaching Wolfe.  Words have meanings - Wolfe often implies all of those meanings despite pure narrative logic. He is obsessed with the meanings of names as a look at his essays in Castle of Days would prove where he tells you what the names of other prominent authors mean historically. This interest in a word and its essence and all its meanings no doubt preoccupies a self-conscious writer, but he tends to rarely descend to the completely meta level, though at times he flirts with it in his short work and stuff like the introduction to Endangered Species emphasizing the reader. I think this is slightly disingenuous, but his speeches and his intros are surprisingly completely non-elitist. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 27, 2013, at 6:26 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com> wrote:

> One of the oddest moments in New Sun comes when Severian reflects on how the language he uses is perspicuous, with one word having only one meaning, when the wording of every statement in new sun is ambiguous. "he was the smallest of those dead" - this is another example of the literal interpretation being the "right" one even though it doesn't fit the context.  Grammatically it says Triskele (a three legged tripod used in worship of a sun god) is dead.  Everything is heliocentric in the metaphors of new sun- the coast rises to meet the sun, etc. We know it can't be literally true because Triskele is alive, but the literal, coded message is that the Claw is not the actual source of healing. Does that make Severian and his dog ciphers? 
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