(urth) "don't look at my words" and other quotes.

[Lee Berman]

>Marc Aramini: "There is a city somewhat like this on Green, but we are not on Green;...  
>"TO UNDERSTAND, you must visualize its sky and hold the vision above you. NOT MY WORDS. NOT MY WORDS."
 
?This DONT PAY ATTENTION TO MY WORDS  is specifically LINKED TO SETTING.  We have to ask ourselves, 
>is Silk in a position to draw the conclusions we are?
 
I find it a pretty compelling argument Marc. In part because I find that Gene Wolfe very often borrows
story devices from many mythological and SF sources, his genius being in disguising them so well. Here
I find a parallel to one of the greatest moments in SF, the Statue of Liberty scene in Planet of the Apes
(movie, not book). To understand the intention of the director we must ignore the "evidence" and accept
what our eyes (Taylor's eyes) see.
 
I can imagine some here treating that scene thusly: "Oh, yes, Planet of the Apes=Earth is an interesting
theory. A bit clever actually. But the spaceship's computers say they are no where near Earth. And if they
did crash on Earth, what is the chance they'd land a horseback ride away from NYC. There are no New Jersey
cliffs like that to the south of New York. And if the Statue of Liberty was visible, the Empire State
Building and Chrysler Building would be even more visible. It must be a delusion or some other green statue.
Planet of the Apes= Earth? Unlikely. We disproved that theory 7 years ago."
 
 
Now there is some convincing counter-evidence to this Green=Urth theory from a Gene Wolfe interview with 
Nick Gevers, James Jordan and Mantis.
 
 
>JJ: I might as well at least ask one of the $64,000 questions, so I'll just go for broke. (Hmm. I've gotta be 
>very precise here. Okay, here goes:) Which of the following, if any, are physically (not in some merely literary 
>or symbolic sense) the same planets as Blue and Green, in the same order?:
>Ushas and Lune
>Urth and Lune
>Lune and Ushas
>Lune and Urth
>Two Urths
>Two Ushases
>Two Lunes
 
 
>GW: None. 
 
 
Despite this, I think think your argument has enough merit to consider its possibility. Perhaps the admonition "DONT
PAY ATTENTION TO MY WORDS" applies proactively to interview words? Perhaps there is a twist of space-time that allows
Gene Wolfe to answer as he does? Or perhaps the question was not asked in quite the right way?
 
I have to say I am struck by the terseness of Gene WOlfe's answer. Quite a contrast to the warmth and efflusiveness he
used in James Jordan's own interview. This is more the way he talks to Peter Wright in his interview. I suspect Gene
Wolfe is far more open to James Jordan's questions when they are framed within a context of religious faith. I get the
impression he doesn't like blunt, "evidence" based material-world sorts of questions about his work.
 
 
I admit that I am fairly open to theories which rely on the unreliability of the narrator. My own "Father Inire" theory
partakes much of that. Some are happy to rely on Severian's report that Father Inire is a Hierodule. I find that
Severian is missing a lot with this solo analysis. We readers are privvy to a lot of Earth information
about gods and fallen angels that Severian does not have at his disposal.