(urth) You have the wrong creation you ninny - eschatology and genesis

[Lee]

>Gerry Quinn: The Yesodi are mentioned here. They were responsible 

>for the creation or modication of the Hierodules, who in turn 

>created aquastors such as Malrubius:


This is tautology. You are saying beings from another universe were

mentioned when beings from another universe were mentioned.


It is a diversion from the topic of the this thread which is whether

Urth is a future version of planet Earth or whether Urth is a previous

universal iteration of Earth.


The James Jordan-Gene Wolfe quotes which inspired this thread are:


>JJ: This universe that you set in Briah, or part of it--is that our universe?



>GW: No. I thought of it as a long past universe. Something that we are repeating 

>rather than something that we are....


>...GW: Yes, I was looking at what past universes might have been like really and 

>that is how...I began with the idea of what is going to happen to us if we just 

>keep going the way we are going and continue to live on the continent of Earth 

>without ever really going into the sea or going into space and we just wait for 

>the money to run out. The do nothing future and thinking about what that would be. 

>And then I got into the idea of universal cycles. And decided that I would show 

>that this might be a past cycle.


http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2tmhh/wolfejbj.html#urth


To me this is an explicit, detailed and unequivocal statement by Wolfe that he 

intended Briah and Urth to be seen as a previous universe, not our own universe 

nor our own Earth.


Marc has suggested this was a casual, self-ret-con of Wolfe own work to pander to 

Protestant sensibilities and to post facto justify the occurrence of a second Flood

on Earth in violation of the Covenant.


With due respect to Marc, I find this to be an unbelievable explanation of such 

specific and detailed words from Mr. Wolfe . I actually think it would make more sense 

to suggest that James Jordan deliberately misquoted Wolfe to uphold Protestant dogma. 

And with due respect to James, I do not think that is at all the case. I respect

both Gene Wolfe and James Jordan and I feel their words were reported faithfully and

honestly in this interview.


I might find the accusation of ret-conning slightly plausible if there were no textual 

hints to support Gene Wolfe's contention that he intended Urth to be a previous 

iteration of Earth. If there were no mention of multiple universes or hints that Urth 

is "of the past". But there are. Both the interview and text support the theory that

Urth is not Earth.


Marc is not the only highly intelligent, well-versed Wolfe fan who adheres to the 

"Urth is Earth" theory. And Wolfe himself seems to give latitude for each reader to

interpret some parts of his work as they see them, not necessarily as Wolfe intended 

them.


But if Wolfe's intentions matter, then, given the words of the interview and the 

textual hints, I find it more likely that the "Urth is Earth" theory is a case of 

readers clinging to their initial, cherished impression rather than "urth is not Earth"

being an incidence of Wolfe auctorial retrofitting.