(urth) This week in Google alerts

[James Wynn]

On 11/5/2011 12:46 PM, Marc Aramini wrote:
> I realized that, even when confronted with the truth, the list could not see it and would disagre; not until Dave Tallman started posting on An Evil Guest years and years later did I see much interesting interpretive work being down in the fashion that Wolfe's work requires.  I would see soemthing like, hey, these trees are fishy five years after I extolled my theory and quell the urge to retread the same worn paths of disappointment.

Of course, Marc, the thing is that you and I have agreed about those 
trees and liannas from the beginning. Yet, we fundamentally disagree 
about their relationship to the main character. And, even more so, when 
we have people who adamantly refuse to acknowledge that Dionysus is an 
important touchstone even in Return To The Whorl, let alone the rest of 
the series...well, you have to set proper expectations. I can understand 
your frustration in that you believe that you have discovered a 
revealing understanding of a quite opaque story, and you would have 
liked some help, but all you get is hand-waving.

But there are obstacles and the obstacles have to be acknowledged in 
order to be resolved:
* Astronomy: What is Blue (with presumably similar gravity to Urth)? 
Where is Lune? How did Green in up in this weird twin planet relationship?

* Zoology: The existence of the inhumi and Blue's very particular 
wildlife is something. Of course, they could be transplants from 
elsewhere...as could the Neighbors (ala the world of An Evil Guest).

* Humanity: If the Neighbors are NOT humanity's future, where have they 
gone. There's the barnacled fellow Horn encounters coming from beneath 
the waves. Has humanity moved below the seas of Blue? Green certainly 
seems abandoned of humanity except for immigrants from the Whorl.

The hostility and derision you received did not come from a good place. 
The lack of support you received is something: People just didn't know 
where to go with the Green Urth Theory based on the obstacles.  This 
makes me think of my Tussah-Typhon theory. It works on a lot of levels 
but I know it is not *quite* right--there's something else going on I'm 
not aware of. I am only confident that it is pointing in the right 
direction.