Silk is Calde!

Tonight's events make me want to chalk it on walls. I should think that even those who are opposed to Obama might find his image in the eyes of many to be similar to that of Silk for many of the Vironese! Paul

Indeed. Things didn't work out quite as well as the Vironese hoped in the case of Silk, however: 1) People expected miracles and the favor of the gods when Silk himself had lost faith. 2) It was soon business as usual for the corrupt Ayuntamiento. 2) Silk reached out for allies in a neighboring country, only to find they had a hostile agenda of their own. 3) Many who followed his lead went to a greener world and found the environment quite hostile. 4) Silk was far less popular on leaving office than when he started. I hope things work out better for this Calde...

I was rooting, a little less than whole-heartedly, for the other guy. But certainly congratulations are in order for a historic night and a remarkable man. I wonder how that guy in Barrington feels. Although right of center, I got the impression from AEG that Wolfe was pretty disaffected with Bush.

A person can be disaffected at Bush and still be quite concerned as to what an untried liberal Democrat who came up out of what is perhaps the wackiest urban political scene ever invented might think is a good thing to do, with the best will in the world. Personally, I think that Gene Wolfe is a relatively profound political philosopher. .

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I don't. He's said too many silly things in interviews for me to take him seriously on these sorts of things, like 'the West doesn't torture animals or make fun of minorities and handicapped people because we're Christian' (to paraphrase).

I wonder about those interviews. They certainly seem sillier than the political stuff at work in his novels, particularly Long Sun. I think he likes saying things for effect.

There's always a chance he was being sarcastic. That doesn't always come across in print well. -L.

Looks like my writing "Silk for Calde" on the walls of venues around the worls and in bathroom stalls in truck stops worked!!! Well, maybe not, but I hope one of you see's one someday.. A great day!! Stuart ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Wed, 11/5/08, Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> wrote: From: Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> Subject: (urth) Silk is Calde! To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net> Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2008, 12:13 AM Tonight's events make me want to chalk it on walls. I should think that even those who are opposed to Obama might find his image in the eyes of many to be similar to that of Silk for many of the Vironese! Paul

I was rooting for McCain too, but there are quite a few things to look forward to in an Obama presidency. Still, it was no fun being a conservative on this campus last night. No fun at all.

I agree, but I think there are also indications in there that he's annoyed with certain aspects of the Democratic Party. Like their policy on abortion. -Matt

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No. He's quite serious about it. "JJ: That is an interesting perspective on it, I hadn't thought of at all. My wife had one of her professors that taught in a Moslem country for a while and said he woke up one day and saw the children had a bunch of kittens they were throwing up in the air and hitting them with a baseball bat against the wall and the mothers just sat by and watched. He said "I am not a Christian, I am an atheist, but I am a Christian in that I could not tolerate that." There has been an influence in our society that has made us different from pagans. GW: We vastly underestimate the importance of Jesus. We think we don't. We have all these churches and we say how can we be underestimating Jesus? We don't until we start trying to figure out what it would be like if he had never lived. When you really start trying to figure out what it would be like if He never lived you realize that He is a much more pivotal figure than we give him credit for. All of these people, everybody at this convention is in that sense a Christian although most of them would tell you that they are not and some of them would tell them quite truthfully that they were Jews who practice Judaism in one of its various forms and so on and so forth. Nevertheless they have been influenced by Christ much more than they realized. We are very lucky to have had Him. We are very fortunate. A friend of mine learned to read Turkish. And he got hold of a Turkish joke book and read it. And I said, "What were the jokes like?" He said it was horrible. They were all about ugly tricks that were being played on blind people and things like that. This is what we have escaped from and we don't realize that it is there and we came very close to falling into it. We very easily could have and we still may." http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2tmhh/wolfejbj.html Yes, that's right folks. Jesus saves [us from being cruel to animals and the blind]. - -- gwern -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEAREKAAYFAkkR6M4ACgkQvpDo5Pfl1oK4zACfYI3kyMHHbfxySIo6D8hkP0Wk 9iYAniKMIGEjgSJ7rBmBB4OzE1sO72xj =FwYa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

QUITE a lot to be annoyed with in BOTH parties, IMHO.

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Some of his interviews do indicate that, yes. For example, he has an interesting rant on how drilling for oil is an incredible & colossal waste of resources because oil is 'for so much more than just burning'; and he also expresses considerable disappointment in the anemic space program. (I have all these interview pages photocopied from Shadows of the New Sun, and I keep meaning to systematically go through them and improve Wikipedia articles using them but they're in a real mess and I can't find anything in them.)

The interview you quoted is available online. Are all the interviews in Shadows of the New Sun available online? bruce

One thing about this election that I think GW would appreciate. A nation lives by its myths about itself. One of America's myths about itself is that "anybody can grow up to be President." This year, we made that a little bit truer. Not just with the election of Obama, but with the taking-seriously of the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, we eliminated the hidden truth: "...as long as they're a white male." There are still barriers. An openly gay, Muslim, or atheistic person still probably can't be President. But today our myth about ourselves is just a little bit truer than it was yesterday. Every nation has myths about itself, but America actually seems to lurch, a little backwards, a little forwards, towards making its myths about itself true.

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No. Some are, but many aren't. For example, I just tried googling some quotes from an interview by Nick Gevers and by Melissa Mia Hall, and no dice. It's a pity, because some of the material is really good. For example, Gene's essay "Books in The Book of the New Sun" has a lot of interesting material on the Ultan scene. I quote the end: "...In writing the legends, I have supposed facts and old stories to have become confused with others, a rascally technique which has earned me at least one vehement accusation of plagiarism.* Thus, for example, the custom of an academic thesis is confounded with the legend of Theseus in "The Tale of the Student and His Son.' The fourth book, as the astute reader will have guessed long ago, is The Book of the New Sun itself. And now we are come again to the notion of recurrence, of the library folded in upon itself like the Klein bottle. This notion of recurrence seems to me to circle our Earth (you may spell it as you like) like the Midgard serpent which clasps its tail in its mouth and is brother to the wolf Fenris. For the library of Master Ultan is in The Book of the New Sun, and The Book of the New Sun is in his library. And you are the readers of that book." Some of his essays like "Nor the Summers as Golden: Writing Multivolume Works" are just intrinsically interesting. I would quote the ending from that as well, since it was an very eloquent one, but it appears I forgot to make a copy. :( * This is a reference to another interview, in which Wolfe mentions a person who wrote to him about TBotNS's 'Frog' story, saying that 'no one else saw it, but I saw how you stole from Kipling there'. Wolfe replies, I'm glad you liked it and could appreciate it. The fellow responds, 'Don't do it again.' - -- gwern -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEAREKAAYFAkkR9T0ACgkQvpDo5Pfl1oKIQACeK9Qh6KBa0oYO6iThk7rSWwTf U4oAnRI7VhMiz9hQ0ttciFPKj39dbufP =YsqL -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Agreed. There's a lot to be happy about even if your candidate lost (mine did). Anyone else see this story? http://www.sacbee.com/latest/story/1370390.html It brought a tear to my conservative eye. -Matt

I like that post about the myth being truer today. A very nice antidote for my cynicism. I voted for Obama, but I don't really believe the hype, even though I would like to.

One things for sure, (and no offense to you in particular Matt) we need to stop labeling ourselves as Conservative or Liberal. We as a people have so much common ground, we shouldn't let extremists get away with polarizing WE into US & THEM. They pull us away from our commonality. Furthermore, they're sort of useless. "Conservatives" usually espouse "Liberal" economics. "Liberals" often unwittingly support policies that reek of modern fascism. Anyone, with ANY sense, is conservative about some things and liberal about others.

Are you saying that anyone, with any sense is liberal about some things and fascist about some others? .

I think we're in agreement here - I'm generally fairly "conservative", but I support quite a few "liberal" policies. I'm certainly not a proponent of "my party, right or wrong". It's why I try and read writers and thinker from both ends of the political spectrum - I feel you end up closer to the truth. And last I checked, truth was non-partisan. I do tend to think that American politics as practiced today is problematic: There are only two viable parties, so it becomes very easy to split the country into red and blue, us and them, conservative and liberal, etc. -Matt

What really irks me is when people vote one way or another simply because they belong to the party. I saw somebody passing around a flyer from the California Republican Party. It was a "voting guide" for Republicans to the propositions, what to vote yes on, what to vote no on, and with no reason as to why. Daniel

No. I'm saying what I said.

You know, a good friend Billy Sheehan? ( a Rush Limbaugh listening.conservative- scientologist for Pete's sake...) said that there is probably more that we all agree on than we disagree... I consider myself a Liberal until I leave SF. come ome and see what passes for acceptable behavior...how long to you think Critical Mass would last in NYC??? Sure likes Obama's positive speach rather than McCain eliciting boos from the crowd by mentioning my home town in a condescending way.. Anyway, I have a question about umbrellas in the BotLS in the chapter about the black mechanics....has this topic been explored? Stuart ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Wed, 11/5/08, Son of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org> wrote:

usually espouse

No. I'm saying what I said.

Incidentally, if you're interested, a while ago I'd hacked together my own "Silk for Calde" bumper sticker in photoshop. I've been driving around with it for some time, but not with nearly as much pleasure as today. http://www.stwing.org/~pborochi/Img/Silk_bumper.jpg Just print it out on 8.5x11, attach and cover it with clear packing tape, and it comes out nice and weatherproof. Paul

Robert Borski had some theories related to Hyacinth's umbrella. That's the only metion I remember.

I love replying to messages from 2 years ago. At any rate, I loved the bumper sticker so much I looked for a "Silk for Cald?!" tshirt and couldnt' find one, so I just made on on Zazzle. If anyone knows how to turn off the 10% markup, let me know. http://www.zazzle.com/silk_for_calde_tshirt-235832584652925582 I really did it for myself, but if someone else wants one, go ahead.

Surprisingly, in all the time I have had the "Silk for Calde" sticker on my car not one other driver had honked and gestured wildly to show solidarity and understanding.... ???????? ? ? ?? ~S~?Mobile — (415) 786-3624 STUHAMM.COM myspace.com/stuhamm Skype? stuart.hamm ? ?? --- On Fri, 1/15/10, Kurt Schwind <kurt.schwind at gmail.com> wrote: From: Kurt Schwind <kurt.schwind at gmail.com> Subject: Re: (urth) Silk is Calde! To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net> Date: Friday, January 15, 2010, 7:06 AM I love replying to messages from 2 years ago. At any rate, I loved the bumper sticker so much I looked for a "Silk for Cald?!" tshirt and couldnt' find one, so I just made on on Zazzle. If anyone knows how to turn off the 10% markup, let me know. http://www.zazzle.com/silk_for_calde_tshirt-235832584652925582 I really did it for myself, but if someone else wants one, go ahead.

Haha, same in my case. I suppose to the uninitiated it might seem like my bumper sticker proposes a shipment of fabric to some place or person named Calde, which is hard to get excited about. Paul

LOL Sent from my BlackBerry? smartphone with SprintSpeed -----Original Message----- From: Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:10:55 To: The Urth Mailing List<urth at lists.urth.net> Subject: Re: (urth) Silk is Calde!