<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><BR><BR>--- On <B>Sun, 11/20/11, James Wynn <I><crushtv@gmail.com></I></B> wrote:<BR>
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<DIV><BR>There isn't any except that I have to first buy in 100% to Marc's theory that humanity of Urth was devoured by trees to create the Neighbors. 1) I don't find the evidence for that compelling. 2) I can't find any thematic support for it to buttress it (the eucharist analogy doesn't get me there). 3) Even if I *did* accept the theory, I would still not be able to explain how Urth became Green (which is the primary value of Marc's theory). In fact, it would still imply that Urth is *Blue* which was the conclusion Marc originally came to when he developed the theory. When Wolfe told him "No! No! No! Urth is Green" Marc changed planets, but *he didn't alter the theory that put Urth on Blue*. Wolfe's comment should have made him re-evaluate that.</DIV>
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<DIV>Wanted to respond really quickly, only in vague terms.</DIV>
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<DIV>I thought the metatextual commentary was pretty clearly indicative of a great mystery involving the nature of the inhumi and neighbors. The final symbol of the book is that of the Hyacinth flower: the blood of the man is crushed into the ground by the shepherd, but the flower blooms up from it. Combined with the eucharist, I think this blood to flower and grape to blood imagery is important. Man must be similarly crushed, through flood and through consumption, to spring up as something new that will endure elsewhere/when (neighbors)</DIV>
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<DIV>Also, I was certain, after looking at the trees and their association with vanished people, and the inhuma claim to be everywhere, and the climbing of the tower on Green, that it was a far future Urth, but I had no mechanism to map it to Blue and account for the passage of time Rigoglio noted (why wind up THEN instead of when Rigoglio left?). The green is urth statement only reinforced that it was the future and gave me the narrator's mental mechanism for that particular time. I always knew it was the future of urth, I just couldn't solidify why they wound up at that time on Urth. But the narrator thinking of green before it was as it is is a pretty good mechanism - the new sun made it as it is (note - warmer than Urth).</DIV>
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<DIV>In any case, "sharing blood" to me is not a handshake, and the trees DO EAT, as do the inhumi, who pass the traits of those they eat onto their children. Whether or not the trees can do that is unknown, but when Seawrack says "you were dead" and "dead things are food" and the neighbor calling himself Horn shows up, I am applying inhumi traits to the trees.</DIV></td></tr></table>