From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) Messianic
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 22:01:20 

>FWIW, yet another appearance in SF of the "humankind is a pollution on the
>cosmos" bit sticks in my craw. Seems oddd to find it in even the most
>"eccentrically" conservative, heirarchical and grave author. But Wolfe
>never asked if I was going to like it ahead of time.

Well, I like to think it's more complex than that--we sure were a pain to have
around, apparently, but the hieros (IMO) like us enough to do us a favor in
spite of all.  I think the Green Man is, definitely, Man.  Man changed in many
ways, but Man.  I mean, I can't imagine that the other folks in the universe
enjoyed Typhon's empire, but I never got that they were doing anything other
than a (two-sided and short-term disastrous) favor.  I'm sure I'd see things
more Ori's way if I thought we actually got exterminated as a species in URTH. 
Yikes.

We still don't know for sure who put that Black Hole there, but humanity's 
collapse seems to have been a matter of getting tired of empire (as a race,
not that Typhon would have tired) in general, so I think the other planets 
may be playgrounds for the rich, or guard-posts, but that they're as "burnt
out" as Urth.




"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/