Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 21:05:53 -0700
From: maa32 
Subject: (urth) color change in azoth and other stuff

I have no idea if this means anything or not: the description of the azoth 
from Return to the Whorl describes the jewel in the hilt as "a watery somewhat 
purplish stone" when Mint gives it back to Silk, claiming that she has given 
it to him before, but he gave it right back to her. (Well, I'm thinking this 
is Kypris talking - she prompted Hyacinth to give the azoth to Silk, then 
received it again when Silk gave it to Mint).

The weird thing is that the jewel in the hilt has changed colors from its 
original description in Nightside the Long Sun.  I can't remember the color 
right now, but I know I was suprised because it wasn't purple (I was reading 
it out loud to my mother a few weeks ago right after reading the description 
of the azoth in Return to the Whorl on my own; she has the book now) I think 
it was blue or blue-green.  Has anybody noticed if the jewel in the hilt 
changes throughout the Long Sun series?

(Also, as I've talked with a few people independently, the wounds on Silk's 
arms could have come from a brush with foliage or trees in the beginning of 
Return to the Whorl, but I won't belabor that point.  Note how he stumbles out 
of the house to a tree.

I wonder if the trees are something unique to the Short Sun books?  Did Wolfe 
already have trees planned as important, possibly sentient beings from the 
beginning of Nightside the Long Sun? There is that odd scene when Silk is 
breaking in to Blood's house where he feels like someone is watching him from 
the trees, but I thought it was an owl or possibly an inhumu.  Who can say? I 
think that the beginning of In Green's Jungles, echoing Peace, clues us in to 
pay attention every time a tree pops up: Elmo has fallen.)

On a very different note, I know that John Crowley is coming out with a 
mainstream book called the Translator later this year, but amazon.com also has 
Otherwise: Three novels of John Crowley slated for release as well, but they 
don't name the novels.  Does anybody have any idea which books are going to be 
included in that upcoming collection (or when the last Aegypt book will be 
out?)
Anybody here like Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber or read Moorcock's Colonel 
Pyat series? Corwin of Amber, in his hard-hearted, super-competent, and 
basically indestructible way, seems like a pretty "Severian" type character. 
(And Pyat might possibly be the most unreliable narrator of all time).

Another thing that confuses me is Clute's categorization of Wolfe and Zelazny 
as exemplary modernists, labeling Moorcock and Gibson as definitely 
postmodern, while in the mainstream Borges and Calvino are usually classified 
as "postmodernists" - and it seems to me that most of Wolfe's stories could 
have come from the pen of someone just like Borges (but not someone like DH 
Lawrence or even Joyce).  Those terms pretty much stink, anyway, but I was 
just curious if anyone had any good justifications for such a classification.

Ok, hope everybody has a good night.

Marc Aramini



--