a (kind of) brief summary

maa32 · 29 Dec 2002, 23:58 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original
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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) a  (kind of) brief summary
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 16:58:12 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2561 at digest.urth.net>
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My theory in the past was argued against primarily based on the ideas that

1)Blue system couldn't be Urth system because the animals were "doubled".

2) Blue system couldn't be Urth system because there was no mechanism to=20
explain how the narrator wound up in the past at Rigolio's home, while SOME=20
time had passed since Rigolio left. This was the big killer that I struggle=
d=20
to overcome.

3)My argument was theme based - a man who doesn't know who he is attempts t=
o=20
go home, only to discover that he has changed so much that he is going to a=20
home that was never his ... while ironically, he is on his home system but=20
can't recognize it because both it, and humanity, have changed.

Read the chapter in Sword of the Lictor with Typhon again.  Here is the=20
clincher - he knows that URTH WILL FLOOD.  He TELLS Severian that water bri=
ngs=20
purification and renewal, and hints that the Urth will be flooded.  He know=
s a=20
lot more than anyone else, including Severian - he knows exactly who the=20
conciliator is.

Due to the importance of hybridization and plant genetics to the first chap=
ter=20
of The Book of the Short Sun, I posited a mechanism to explain the doubling=
 of=20
limbs which in fact WAS textually grounded - hybridization is a doubling,=20
whether you believe it or not.  And it explains why inhumi don't have to ea=
t=20
and can survive being buried, and perhaps why the narrator no longer requir=
es=20
normal sustenance and how the Green Man came to be.  (Chloroplasts aren't j=
ust=20
going to appear without some kind of endosymbiosis in an animal cell, right=
? =20
Only this time the trees are the active consumers)

I lacked the mechanism to explain how time travel occured, but I cited seve=
ral=20
examples of time/astral travel, including his observation of Nettle on the=20
beach and his appearance in Salica's stories - things which don't make much=20
"real" sense unless you buy into the time thing - then I quoted that "The s=
ong=20
of the mother is a song of time" and that "the only return to the past is i=
n=20
dreams" and that the narrator considers his astral travel dreams.

Then with this new interpolation of Urth as Green, I quickly grabbed onto t=
he=20
evidence in the text that supports it - the narrator thought of Green's=20
jungles and his son Sinew, and Rigolio was thinking of his home, and SILK=20
thought about how he wanted to show everyone how the world of blue could be=20
corrupted.  Also, a song was playing - a song of time.  This is all in Chap=
ter=20
20 and 21 of In Green's Jungles.  It explains how we went back to a time ri=
ght=20
before the new "corruption" of Urth through Severian.

Here is the final piece of evidence, in my mind, that Wolfe wanted to point=
 me=20
in the right direction.  Several months ago he sent me a letter, which was=20
written on the back of a manuscript page.  I didn't realize it at the time,=20
thinking it was a mistake, but the manuscript came from CHAPTER 20 of In=20
Green's Jungles, right before where the narrator talks about thinking of=20
Green.  I think Wolfe likes me - and that he wanted to point me in the=20
direction of Chapter 20 - and in his subtle way, he sent me a manuscript pa=
ge=20
to clue me in.  He is very, very subtle - as we all know.  I don't think he=20
wants everyone to know about it, since it is very easy to deny, but I think=
 he=20
wrote the text with the idea that he could fool everyone into thinking that=
 it=20
was a different place - and that the whole text is an effort to misdirect t=
he=20
reader away from the real questions:

Where is HORN? (Not where is Silk - too obvious)
What is the secret of the vanished gods? (Not what is the secret of the inh=
umi=20
- too obvious)
What is the plan of the Mother? (Not what is the plan of Pas - which might =
be=20
recolonization)


Also, I believe that the blind man killed on Green who the narrator mistake=
s=20
for Auk is an avatar of Hierax - remember that it is revealed that he is de=
ad=20
in Return to the Whorl - and the mistake was made because Auk was possessed=
 by=20
Hierax for so long.  Also, I believe that Silk goes back to Green to free=20
Chenille, and that she comes to Blue WITH THE SILVER RING and is fed upon b=
y=20
Jahlee in Dorp, but never meets up with Silk.  She is drunk because she is =
sad=20
that her children on Green have been killed.

My answer to the three challenges:

1.  The trees account for the doubling, APPLYING the secret of the inhumi t=
o=20
explain what happened to the vanished people, and what happened to Urth.  A=
nd=20
it explains the meaning of the chrasmological writings that make Silk cry a=
t=20
the end of the work - humanity, while dead, thrives on as flower - and it=20
explains the eucharist scenes in the forest as well - the transmutation of=20
grapes into blood.
2. The mechanism at the end of Chapter 20 explains how Silk wound up on Urt=
h=20
in the past - he was thinking of Green in the past, and he went to Green in=20
the past, where Rigolio wanted to go.
3. The theme is the same - there is just one more level of misdirection- I=20
think a level too many for anyone to ever "solve" the text.

I have to strongly disagree about the claim that the books where shoddily=20
constructed.  I think they are the most carefully constructed works ever -=20
works so careful that the veneer of misdirection is almost too good.  Very =
few=20
people can see past their first impression of the books because they don't=20
want to admit that they MISSED SOMETHING BIG.  And I think we all missed a =
lot=20
of big things the first time through.  Just read the books through again an=
d=20
pay attention to the trees, and you will be blown away.  I swear it - reall=
y=20
pay attention to them.  And think of them as vanished gods who can create l=
ife=20
- possibly the vanished gods who were awakened in the mine of Saltus by the=20
Claw of the Conciliator to rise up and change the face of the world.

We should still pay attention to Seawrack and the Mother's plans - Silk goe=
s=20
back in time to placate the mother and learn the location of Seawrack.  She=
 is=20
a threat of some kind - just look at the conclusions description of her.

I better go.=20
Marc Aramini



--=20
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