From: "Chris" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Blue-Ushas; Green-Urth -- Problems
Date: Sun, 05 Jan 2003 02:46:22 +0000

Thank you James, for your comments; I'd never seen the interview you were 
referring to, and that probably saved me some headaches - though I may try 
to develop the theory anyway, just as an exercise (and who knows, it could 
be right in its own way, still).

Re: "No, no, NO, GREEN is Urth", I thought I'd add this on (from the joke 
angle), though it's not much of a joke unless you're an engineer. In various 
types of power cords, there tend to be three wires of different colors. The 
colors mean different things, depending on what kind of wiring it is, but as 
far as I know there is almost always a green, and it corresponds to: 
"Earth". (the others being "line", and "neutral")

I am interested in your points on the meta-narrative. I am uncomfortable 
going too far with the Silk-as-a-Christ-figure line, though I can see where 
it's coming from. To simplify what would otherwise be an overly-wordy post 
on my part, in essence I feel that if Wolfe had intended Silk as (primarily) 
a Christ-figure, we would have a whole different story on our hands.

I don't think Severian matches a Noah either; Noah wasn't the agent of God's 
flood, he simply was chosen to survive it and to make preparations to 
preserve life for after the flood. Severian in contrast actively 
precipitates his flood, and doesn't really do much of anything to prepare or 
to mitigate its destruction. I'd call him a Shiva-figure, but there are 
probably better descriptions.

Perhaps all planets, with their cycles of creation and destruction, are Urth 
(Ushas, Blue, Earth, and Green)?


>         6. What is the meta-narrative underpinning? Silk is a Christ 
>figure (not a Moses figure, Biblically, save as Moses is a type of Christ 
>-- don't be fooled by the word "exodus," but see Luke 9:31, where what 
>Jesus accomplished at Jerusalem is called his "exodus" -- something Wolfe 
>surely knows, having heard this passage read annually at mass). Are we to 
>think of Severian as more of a Noah figure, once we read all 12 volumes? 
>Does it finally come out something like this?:
>         a. An old pre-flood world, where the sons of god (interpreted as 
>space beings) are marrying (interfering with) the daughters of men (human 
>beings), and the world has become corrupt.
>         b. A new Noah brings a flood.
>         c. The world divides into higher gentiles (Neighbors) and raw 
>barbarians (inhumi), while the Jews have a separate history (the Whorl) 
>leading down to a savior (Silk).
>         d. The new people emerge from the Whorl (Christians) and now must 
>enter and deal with the twin worlds of the gentiles 
>(Blue-Ushas/Green-Urth). The higher gentiles, the philosophers (Neighbors) 
>yield to the new Christians (the humans).
>         e. But I can see lots of objections to this, and so doubtless can 
>you all.
>         Anyway, just some thoughts, and just for fun.
>         You see, I think it possible that Wolfe's comment was serious, but 
>not literal. Jesus took bread and said, "This IS my body." Well, as 
>theologians (and recently others) have argued for centuries, how you take 
>this depends on what the meaning of "is" is. Green IS Urth. Sure it is. If 
>you want to see what Urth was like before the New Sun, take a look at 
>Green. Not Blue but Green is symbolically parallel to Urth. Maybe that's 
>all Gene meant.
>         But if he meant more, it's fun to try and track it down.
>
>Nutria
>
>
>--


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