color change in azoth and other stuff

maa32 · 31 Jan 2002, 04:05 · from urth-v0202.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) color change in azoth and other stuff
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 21:05:53 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0202-24 at digest.urth.net>
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I have no idea if this means anything or not: the description of the azoth=20
from Return to the Whorl describes the jewel in the hilt as "a watery somew=
hat=20
purplish stone" when Mint gives it back to Silk, claiming that she has give=
n=20
it to him before, but he gave it right back to her. (Well, I'm thinking thi=
s=20
is Kypris talking - she prompted Hyacinth to give the azoth to Silk, then=20
received it again when Silk gave it to Mint).

The weird thing is that the jewel in the hilt has changed colors from its=20
original description in Nightside the Long Sun.  I can't remember the color=20
right now, but I know I was suprised because it wasn't purple (I was readin=
g=20
it out loud to my mother a few weeks ago right after reading the descriptio=
n=20
of the azoth in Return to the Whorl on my own; she has the book now) I thin=
k=20
it was blue or blue-green.  Has anybody noticed if the jewel in the hilt=20
changes throughout the Long Sun series?

(Also, as I've talked with a few people independently, the wounds on Silk's=20
arms could have come from a brush with foliage or trees in the beginning of=20
Return to the Whorl, but I won't belabor that point.  Note how he stumbles =
out=20
of the house to a tree.

I wonder if the trees are something unique to the Short Sun books?  Did Wol=
fe=20
already have trees planned as important, possibly sentient beings from the=20
beginning of Nightside the Long Sun? There is that odd scene when Silk is=20
breaking in to Blood's house where he feels like someone is watching him fr=
om=20
the trees, but I thought it was an owl or possibly an inhumu.  Who can say?=
 I=20
think that the beginning of In Green's Jungles, echoing Peace, clues us in =
to=20
pay attention every time a tree pops up: Elmo has fallen.)

On a very different note, I know that John Crowley is coming out with a=20
mainstream book called the Translator later this year, but amazon.com also =
has=20
Otherwise: Three novels of John Crowley slated for release as well, but the=
y=20
don't name the novels.  Does anybody have any idea which books are going to=
 be=20
included in that upcoming collection (or when the last Aegypt book will be=20
out?)
Anybody here like Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber or read Moorcock's Colonel=20
Pyat series? Corwin of Amber, in his hard-hearted, super-competent, and=20
basically indestructible way, seems like a pretty "Severian" type character=
.=20
(And Pyat might possibly be the most unreliable narrator of all time).

Another thing that confuses me is Clute's categorization of Wolfe and Zelaz=
ny=20
as exemplary modernists, labeling Moorcock and Gibson as definitely=20
postmodern, while in the mainstream Borges and Calvino are usually classifi=
ed=20
as "postmodernists" - and it seems to me that most of Wolfe's stories could=20
have come from the pen of someone just like Borges (but not someone like DH=20
Lawrence or even Joyce).  Those terms pretty much stink, anyway, but I was=20
just curious if anyone had any good justifications for such a classificatio=
n.

Ok, hope everybody has a good night.

Marc Aramini

--=20

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