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<TITLE>Urth - Geology vs Humanity</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">Hi fellow Tim!</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">While I think the central question of how far in the future of the book is unknowable (I don't think Wolfe knows based on interview)</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">there are two strong options emerging - a several thousand years and several million years.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">I guess which one you choose is based on your inclination - I would never have gone with an artistic argument about the book, I would</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">lean towards the scientific possibilities in the book. But I see your viewpoint as valid also and I am glad you mentioned it.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">I guess the question that is emerging for me is Is it important how far in the future the book is set?</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">Vance in the Dying Earth series never gave any clues to the passage of time and thus escaped this trap.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">Wolfe in scattering some clues for the reader has dug himself a hole (or built a cliff-face) his readers are struggling to escape.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">I am currently reading The Books of the Short Sun (import only in Ireland, so frustrating!). </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">I came across a line last night that made me smile:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">"As with so many other riddles, it is easy to speculate but impossible to know which speculation is correct - if any are."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Tahoma">On Blue's Waters, Ch 6.</FONT>
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<P><B><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">__________________________________________________________________________</FONT></B>
<BR><B><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Tim Walters</FONT></B><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">><I> It's also debatable that Urt's core really is cooling. The learned Ultan</I></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT><I><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"> and Palaemon seem to get most of their education from the piles of books</FONT></I>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT><I><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"> in the Library, and may have no way to know which books have outdated</FONT></I>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT><I><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"> theories; they may have enjoyed Bellamy's _Looking Backward_and gotten</FONT></I>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT><I><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"> the notion that the refrigeration of the earth is a foregone conclusion</FONT></I>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT><I><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"> in the wisdom of the ancients.</FONT></I>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">What's the artistic point of the cliff scene, world-famous for its</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">evocation of deep time, if not to show that a gazillion years have passed?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">What's the artistic point of mentioning the cooling of Urth's core, if not</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">to show that a gazillion years have passed?</FONT>
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