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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dstockhoff@verizon.net
href="mailto:dstockhoff@verizon.net">David Stockhoff</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
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face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> On 11/1/2011 8:14 AM, Lee Berman
wrote:<BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>>> Matt Keeley: The
happy reviewer of Shadow states that Urth is "clearly" part of Earth's<BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>>> future. When was this list last so
sure of anything about a Wolfe book?<BR>><BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> Hm..I haven't seen anyone debate that
the story is set in S. America for a while. That<BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> had been an early debate
here.<BR>><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> But, didn't we
all think Urth was the future of Earth at one time? I think it would be<BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> difficult to consider that Urth is a
parallel and future version of Earth without<BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> exposure to the debates here and the
Wolfe interview quotes.</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Wolfe’s
quotes are certainly a major element, but the cyclic universe is described in a
chapter of Citadel called ‘The Key to the Universe’. That Urth is the far
future of an Earth rather similar to ours is obvious. My opinion is that
we are not intended to know whether it exists in a past cycle, a future cycle,
or in our own (in which case Urth is a future Earth). </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> (FWIW, I think the S.
America conclusion supports the parallel Urth idea. It isn't easy to<BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> consider a geologic upheaval that could
move the Andes from the west side to the east side<BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>> of the continent while leaving Lake
Titicaca and its floating islands intact.) <BR><BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>Definitely. It's easier to imagine Earth
split like an orange and peeled <BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">>
</FONT>back over either pole so that the continents and their movements are all
<BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">> </FONT>reversed from the beginning, than
to imagine them actually reversing <BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">>
</FONT>direction in 20,000 years. If this is actually what Wolfe was thinking,
<BR></DIV>
<DIV>I find it hard to believe that Severian’s descriptions of geography are
detailed enough to be identifiable with confidence as a particular distorted
version of Earth’s geography.</DIV>
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<DIV>As for the time, we don’t know it, though 20000 years seems a bit short to
me, not so much in terms of theoretical history, but in terms of literary
style. Of course such information as we get about the age of Urth is
filled with contradictions anyway.</DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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