(urth) short story 7: The Green Wall Said

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Marc Aramini 

> The Green Wall Said
> This is probably Wolfe’s first somewhat cryptic story in which it is very
> difficult to drawan accurate conclusion, and it is my favorite of 
> “Young Wolfe”.  It was published in Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds
> in 1967.  It may be a biological survey done on a human sample group
> by aliens, as I see little evidence that is a behavioral or spriritual one.
It *is* pretty cryptic.  My thoughts on this one:
First, I think they are in a flying saucer, presumably in a holding cell  in half of the dome those things have on top.  The shape fits, as does the room tilting five degrees then straightening – presumably a course correction.  Also, the helicopter pilot apparently remembers seeing it after a while; he might be fabulating but it is plausible that someone piloting an aircraft might have noticed a flying saucer whereas someone beamed up from the ground wouldn’t.
The aliens are an ancient race.  They are sane and rational, and their laws are just.  Their EQ is obviously a bit lacking, though.  Apparently their “springs of being” are failing, and they cannot fix it without learning to sacrifice for the kind as humans do.
I think they are near-immortal, but – whether because of slow physical degeneration, new challenges they cannot deal with, or whatever – their time is coming to an end.  But individuals of this species refuse to allow themselves to die and be replaced by offspring.  They want to understand how humans do it.  They cannot understand the tools humans use, which are love/caring for others, and religion.  They have targeted humans who display these (with the exception of the prisoner, but even he has got religion recently).
The accountant is poor (threadbare suit) but desperate to support his six children.  The soldier flies an air ambulance.  The nun works in an orphanage and the doctor runs a mission.  As I say, the prisoner is an anomaly – but then again he is being cared for, so maybe that’s it.
This could be a foreshadowing of some of the spiritual themes in Wolfe, as well as the concept of renewal requiring death, applied most pungently in the case of Urth/Ushas.
One last observation: might the last ‘DO YOU DO IT’ be addressed to the reader?
- Gerry Quinn
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