The Burden of Proof

Adam Stephanides · 29 Dec 2002, 14:58 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) The Burden of Proof
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 08:58:42 -0600
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2549 at digest.urth.net>
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on 12/28/02 5:05 PM, Jeff Veyera at teflon93 at cox.net wrote:

> It's funny how the folks most devoted to author's intent in the previous
> Blushas threads suddenly come up with this elaborate joke theory rather t=
han
> acknowledge that Wolfe may well have proceeded from the idea of Green as
> Ushas.

You seem to be under a misapprehension.  The idea that Wolfe may have been
joking is not a "theory" that the anti-"Greeshas" people concocted.  Rather,
it was introduced to the list by Marc himself, and originated with Wolfe.
If I had had only Wolfe's statement that Green was Urth, I might have
hypothesized that Wolfe was joking, simply because Green=3DUrth is so
improbable and seems to contradict his earlier interview statement.
Fortunately, I didn't have to.

In any case, at least one of Wolfe's statements on this topic must be false.
Afaik there are three: his statement that Green is Urth; his statement that
that statement was a joke (which we have at third hand, but Marc accepts it
as authentic); and his interview statement regarding the destination of the
Whorl, which still seems to me to argue strongly against either Blushas or
Greeshas.  These can't all be correct.

> it seems to me that the burden of proof has now
> shifted to the opponents of Green/Ushas---Marc has provided both the miss=
ive
> from Mr. Wolfe and some textual support,

if one uses the term "textual support" very loosely

> which is more than his detractors
> have thus far provided.

As mentioned above, Marc himself provided the "missive from Wolfe" stating
that Greeshas was a joke.  And all the arguments against Blue being Urth
apply equally well to Green.

> Absent confirmation from Wolfe that he was merely joking,

To those don't believe Wolfe's statement that he was joking, a repetition by
Wolfe wouldn't settle anything.  It'd just be dismissed as Wolfe "continuing
the misdirection."

> In any case, making Marc out to be a naive dupe

"naive dupe" is your word, not mine; but again, it was Marc who first (on
the list) raised the possibility that he'd been fooled.

> for somehow not realizing
> Wolfe was pulling his leg as this and previous threads have seems ridicul=
ous
> and disingenuous---if you think Green CANNOT be Ushas, prove it.

Clearly, no sort of proof will convince the partisans of the Green=3DUrth
theory, since any contradiction or impossibility can be explained away by
hypothesizing another ad hoc mechanism.  But I will say that if Wolfe did
intend Green to be Urth, then the Short Sun books are more shoddily written
than I'd thought.

--Adam

--=20

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