(urth) _Dhalgren_: Scathing Towards Women? and a few ?'s about Sev

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

James,

I disliked "Urth" at first, for much the same reasons you suggest. I thought
it, well, _unnecessary_.

And perhaps it is unnecessary: but thanks to others on this list (especially
Alga, whose absence in recent times I greatly regret), I reread it and was
far more impressed. It does explain much that the tetralogy proper leaves
only suggested; but it also adds new questions, and indeed seems to
introduce some paradoxes, points that are quite hard to resolve both with
itself and with _tBotNS_.

One possibility, of course, is that _Urth_ isn't written by "the same"
Severian (I will do no more than put it in quotes, so as not to spoil
things for those who have not yet read it) who wrote the _Book_, but
I find that unsatisfactory on a number of levels...

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
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http://www.danehyoakes.com
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open
sewer and die.
  - Mel Brooks