(urth) Ansible Interview

[James Wynn]

>
>> The real problem, even if you're right, is that your theory involves
>> Wolfe making a much bigger aesthetic mistake than getting the geometry 
>> wrong.
>>
>> "Hmmm... lessee... by default, nothing in the Whorl will cast a shadow. 
>> Maybe I could use that as a subtle part of the description, to enhance 
>> the atmosphere of being in a artificial world different from the earth. 
>> Nah... there's a really convoluted way in which it's theoretically 
>> possible for shadows to exist. I'll just write as if I'd forgotten the 
>> whole thing, and let people construct the epicycles to rationalize it."
>
> You are assuming he thought it all strange that the Whorl would cast 
> shadows. If he made a rough model of his Whorl, he would have seen shadows 
> and just recorded what he saw.
>
> J


P.S. Trust me. There are far more important plot elements in The Book of the 
Long Sun that are far, far more subtly presented.