New Wolfe online

cilluff1 at optonline.net · 07 Feb 2003, 16:10 · from urth-v0302.mbox · original

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From: "cilluff1 at optonline.net" <cilluff1 at optonline.net>
Subject: RE: (urth) New Wolfe online
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 11:10:48 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0302-2888 at digest.urth.net>
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Charles Reed wrote:

<<1) The castaway says, "We could have saved her=3D2E Earlier=3D2E We could=
 ha=3D
ve=3D20
made her young again=3D2E We could have taken her away=3D2E We could have d=
one=3D
=3D20
it=3D2E Nothing stopping us=3D2E" But later on he says, "But it was all ove=
r f=3D
or=3D20
her, and she knew it=3D2E We never wanted to help her=3D2E We never wanted =
to=3D20=3D

save her, and now we couldn't if we wanted to=3D2E It's too late=3D2E Too l=
ate=3D
=3D20
=3D2E=3D2E=3D2E"  So=3D2E  How could she have been saved?  How much earlier=
 is he=3D20=3D

talking about?  Is he talking about a future Earth (or Urth) where the=3D20
New Sun doesn't come, and is the New Sun the way she could have been
saved?>>

Although of course there's always the temptation to try to place any Wolfe=
=3D

work in an Urth context (and I also wondered if this was Urth, although I
thought that if this was Urth it was post New Sun, that we had repeated th=
=3D
e
cycle, although I do like your "alternate history" theory), I finally
thought that this was a (mostly) straight-forward allegory about treating
Gaia, Mother Earth, properly=3D2E  We could have saved her by acting with m=
o=3D
re
forethought instead of repeating the tragedy of the commons on a global
scale=3D2E =3D20

As for the "underground humans" issue, I do actually read that snippet as
suggesting that it is indeed humans or post-humans (shades of Morlocks)
living underground, devouring the mother we killed even after she is dead=
=3D2E=3D
=3D20
Mostly I feel this because that quote seemed to have a connotation of
blame, that those living underground, cast as maggots, were blameworthy fo=
=3D
r
her death, which would pretty much have to be humans unless Pierre Boulle
was right and monkeys take over the planet=3D2E

- Shell

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--=20

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