(urth) planetary problems

[James Wynn]

>> Marc Aramini-
>> Yes, the question of what exactly Blue is remains a big problem of understanding
>> what happened when the New Sun came,  why there is a city there underwater, maybe even what caused
>> the eclipse that spared Severian's life in the time of Apu Punchau.
>
> Lee-
> Hm. I already mentioned the ruins beneath Blue's Ocean. And I have long thought the "Accepted Lupine
> Gospel" was on the wrong track with regard to the eclipse ("Tzadkiel's Ship caused it"). What is the
> direction of your thoughts, Marc?

This is an aspect of Marc's evolved theory that people sometimes miss. 
There is a lot about Blue that might recommend it to a long ago flooded 
world. That's the way Marc originally saw it. But after Wolfe's comment 
to him he began focusing on elements of the text that seem to connect 
Urth and Green.

The fact that Marc's theory has dramatically changed direction doesn't 
undercut it in my mind. A broad theory has lots of moving parts, and it 
is not uncommon for someone to correctly note that a surreptitious crime 
has been committed, but then finger the wrong suspects. Happens all the 
time. Some avoid that mistake by only noting the evidence of the crime's 
/commission/ such as Ryan Dunn did with Inire & Fetchin & Co's simian 
traits. But ultimately--to have any hope of making an arrest-- you have 
to start grilling suspects and you run the risk of people asking 
questions OF YOU that you can't answer--an investigator prefers to be 
the one asking the questions. The people who say "nothing's there" feel 
free to offer the flimsiest excuses for some really bizarre passages (or 
to just ignore them) while expecting the Theorist to explain the most 
arcane, vaguely implied technicalities about his explanation.

I'm not saying Roy has done that with Marc's Theory. Although, arguably, 
it hasn't been necessary. You see, Marc's theory has some real posers--I 
mean, //regarding setting//, not exposition, //not what people say//. 
Deciding that Green=Urth (or, to a lesser extent, Blue=Ushas) is no less 
strange to my mind than if the Rajan had come to Urth and found young 
Severian growing turnips on a farm speaking like a hillbilly. And this 
weird discrepancy is --at this time, Roy and others not withstanding-- 
the greatest refutation of the Green Urth theory. (I mean "refutation" 
as "an argument against" not as "proof that is untrue".)

I'm troubled by some statements and events that imply Urth is closer 
than anyone imagines. I'm troubled much more by the claim that Blue or 
Green is Severian's planet because the conspiracy is sooo big that I 
wonder that it could be kept hidden. Some people probably think the same 
thing when I say Horn was possessed by a Neighbor or Hyacinth is Fava 
and the Rajan is Hy's father. But I consider physical changes between 
Urth and Green truly daunting and categorically different. In each of 
those other cases, I argue, one only needs to re-interpret the scenes 
and dialog as they are presented. Green Urth means explaining massive 
events of which we were hitherto unaware.

I don't like it, but I think tha's where we are. If I sound like a 
devout believer who has lost his faith, I'm not. I'm someone who was 
always skeptical of this theory but _did_ expect it to yield some fruit. 
But I got to the end and discovered, unhappily, I had the same questions 
I started with. It explains why the dream travelers ended up on Urth. 
But it raises up massive really scary puzzles that are left unanswered.

u+16b9

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