(urth) The mystery of the image of an astronaut cleaned by Rudesind

[James Wynn]

On 7/7/2010 1:34 PM, António Pedro Marques wrote:
> James Wynn wrote (07-07-2010 19:25):
>
>> Does it deciding that Kent is Superman change the story in any way? I
>> mean, Superman still has to rescue Lois, right?
>
> If Superman were not Clark, where would he have met Lois? Ok, she's a
> journalist and he's a public figure. If Superman were someone else other
> than Clark, wouldn't he have other singificant people in his alternate 
> life
> whom we know zilch about? Among whom probably some love interest.
> Kent being Superman doesn't change the story because in the sorty 
> that's precisely who Kent is. Kent not being Superman would certainly 
> call for a quite different story.

I was being factitious in order to make a point. If Inire were also 
variously Rudesind and a monkey, it would affect the story if only that 
it would mean Inire might be a Hierogrammate. It would mean that the 
grammates were affecting humanity directly. I say "might" because we 
don't really know Hierodules can't shapeshift. If he is a Hierodules and 
can shape-shift then it means Hierodules can shapeshift. And familiarity 
with Wolfe's other novels shows that Inire wouldn't have to be able to 
shape-shift in order to look like someone totally different.

It's not that I have an opinion either way. It's just that I don't think 
theories should be countered with mere hand-waving.Ultimately, much that 
goes on in a Wolfe novel is unprovable if your standards for proof are 
at all stringent. The best one can hope for is to prove that something 
is flatly denied in the text in a way that a liar would not undermine 
(which is very difficult in itself). Think of how the details in UotNS 
have affected the way we understand tBotNS. Then consider that Wolfe had 
not intended to write UotNS.

u+16b9



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