(urth) Like a good Neighbor

[Lee Berman]

>Marc Aramini: Don't you remember the literary technique Severian talked about? 
>A torturer paid by one side to make it quick, the other to make it painful, and 
>by positioning them just right, he succeeds - thus does Wolfe speak of narrative
 
I agree fully, Marc. I have used the old/young woman optical illusion and the 
House Absolute/Secret House as analogies for the same principle. It is to no avail
for some people. They are exclusionary readers and for them there is one and only
one best answer and once determined, it excludes the possibility of multiple meaning.
 
"GREEN is Urth!!!" (I think that is the proper quote, caps to designate BLUE is not Urth).
Marc I think you recognize there is metaphorical meaning in that. But you also find
literal meaning. Why can't it be both, depending on which perspective you are taking in
regard to space, time and dreams.
 
Likewise this pointless debate on whether Horn died in the pit. If there is a tranferrable
soul being considered, the definition of death is no longer as cut and tried as we, in
our world, define it. Why can't Horn be dead in one way of looking at things and not really
dead from another perspective. Moreover, why can't it be recognized that Wolfe writes in
a way in which both can be true?
 
>Sergei Soloviev: As I explain, it is one of many ends. And I think the reading is richer 
>if you do not see maximal "yes" or maximal "no" on any occasion.
 
Sergei, I think you are on the right track. But you are trying to compromise and thus losing
something on both ends. If we are trying to understand our own human existence, the concept
of yes or no is needed. Either yes, someone is alive or no, they are not. But if we are
trying to understand God, that is too limiting. Jesus is both dead AND alive. God is both
maximal yes AND maximal no.
 
This is what makes Gene Wolfe a special author. He is simultaneously trying to explore
human existence and an understanding of the divine. We shouldn't ignore either one of these.