From: maa32 <maa32@dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: Too literal on everything?
Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2002 20:21:47 -0700

Very interesting stuff about the Maternal paganism in Wolfe, Nutria.  Thanks 
for sharing your conversation with Wolfe.

Hey Andy, when you say I'm being too literal, do you mean about all my word 
connections or just that Blue/Green time travel thing?  Severian doesn't seem 
to have any problem traveling through time.  The only thing I think is very 
interesting in the text about what whorls we should consider when dealing with 
inhumu is when the narrator claims (with some authority)that there are only 
three whorls involved: the whorl, green, and blue.  Why, then, does Merryn 
have a problem with animals on the Red Sun Whorl (certainly a few thousand 
years would change the constellations, too), and why does Jahlee bring it up? 
What does it mean?  I've just found it interesting how Wolfe can infuse 
repetitive words with associations that they normally do not have (for 
example, read The Book of the New Sun and look at how many times water and 
healing are mixed, as well as flooding and salvation -> it happens over and 
over and over ad nauseum. Obviously, salvation requires a big flood -> and you 
didn't really have to read Urth of the New Sun to make that association)  I'm 
just exploring those word associations, and whether they are fruitful or not.  
I have always felt that was a good way to read Wolfe (like that whole elm tree 
being associated with death in Peace, or noticing in the Book of the New Sun 
that every time a scary beast shows up, Hethor shows up, too -> I think Wolfe 
only provides the exposition half the time).  Certainly I am not even 
confident in most of my explorations -> I'm just drawing weird connections. 
And you must admit that in a book about a journey home, it does not seem very 
off the wall that there might be some way to reconcile Blue and Green with 
that homeward journey (especially since their orbits pass within 30,000 
leagues of each other).  And if you've ever read Books in the Book of the New 
Sun which equates a masters thesis with the story of Theseus or the BINDING OF 
A BOOK with the upcoming appearance of Dorcas, then you know that Wolfe is 
entirely capable of making the most bizarre and surprising connections in the 
universe.
Marc Aramini