passion play and the weight of evidence

maa32 · 04 Dec 2002, 14:35 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) passion play and the weight of evidence
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2002 07:35:15 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2358 at digest.urth.net>
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My best explanation for the cleansing of the sewers is that it is a passion=20
play that re-enacts the story of the conciliator, just as eschatology and=20
genesis was a passion play that foretold how the events of Urth of the New =
Sun=20
would run, passed on from Canog's book.  It is distorted, but valid=20
thematically, and it serves as a message from the vanished people to Horn=20
about how the planet reached its current condition - a necessary flood.

Also, if a ship has the ability to reach back in time, like the ship Severi=
an=20
takes by moving through space in UOTNS, then can't Silk in his astral trave=
l=20
go through the same "white hole" or whatever to go back in time in his=20
travels?  There you go: he travels far enough away to pass through that=20
dying/gestating black/white hole, and the red light he seeks is through tha=
t=20
barrier.  Since he travels with light, of course he is drawn to the spiritu=
al=20
birth of the New Sun.

Here are some more parallels that we should consider:

In the second chapter of OBW, they talk of the silver mines that have been=20
found, probably where the special ring of Silkhorn was found or forged.  Co=
uld=20
this be the mine of Saltus where that ancient "thing" was sleeping that=20
Severian woke up?  Could the ring that allows resonance with the vanished=20
people be a product of that ancient (perhaps vegetative or scientifically=20
experimental but forgotten by Urth) awareness (remember that Hide can see t=
he=20
Vanished person on a tree floating where none previously was to be seen at =
the=20
end of RTTW when he peers through the ring)?

The underwater wall that surrounds the huge city Seawrack speaks of: eviden=
ce=20
of a flood.

The abilty of Green to affect the tide at its closest.

The statement by Krait that the most obvious truths are the ones that are=20
paradoxical or impossible: how can Urth be Blue if the narrator is in both=20
places? A pretty big paradox, eh?

This great statement, which I leave to all of you:

=46rom chapter 2 of OBW:
They see the whorl, but with the eyes of potatoes.

No offense, of course.

Trees on the moon.  A flood.  Meetings with a man known to cross through ti=
me=20
freely, a man who in one of his travels met Typhon.

The importance of plant hybridization to the text.

I'm done.  I'm satisfied. Let me just say this: Wolfe won't tell me whether=
 my=20
ideas are wrong about Urth being Blue, but he just avoids the question and =
is=20
otherwise very, very friendly to me.  I think he is proud of hiding Urth as=20
Blue: remember what remora said at the beginning of OBW: everything was=20
revealed in the long sun whorl, but that in the short sun everything is hid=
den=20
and obscured.  I argue that the biggest vanishing act is that done to Urth:=20
while it is still a big huge blue planet with a green satellite (that most=20
thought would be Urth at first, but where then disappointed when it was=20
revealed that it was contiguous with the beginning of the New Sun text), Wo=
lfe=20
has managed to hide it from us.  At least some of us.

Marc Aramini

--=20

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