<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13.3333px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Marc Aramini <marcaramini@yahoo.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> The Urth Mailing List <urth@lists.urth.net> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, August 28, 2013 12:10 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight:
bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: (urth) silk, the dancing toy, gods in the tunnels<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br><div id="yiv9577392571"><div><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"><div><span></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"> <div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <div class="yiv9577392571hr" style="margin:5px 0px;padding:0px;border:1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);height:0px;line-height:0;font-size:0px;"></div> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Lee Berman <severiansola@hotmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">To:</span></b> "urth@urth.net" <urth@urth.net> <br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, August 27, 2013 10:58 AM<br> <b><span
style="font-weight:bold;">Subject:</span></b> (urth) silk, the dancing toy, gods in the tunnels<br>
</font> </div> <div class="yiv9577392571y_msg_container">><br><br>In addition to what has already been posted about dogs as gods, I tend to <br>take a meta-interpretation of it in addition to the other suggestions.<br><br>Many agree that Wolfe inserts dogs and wolves throughout his stories as a<br>sort of self-reference. Perhaps these dogs as gods is a reference to his<br>own status as the creator of the universe we are inhabiting as we read.<br><br>Wolfe's familiarity with gnostic principles seems unquestionable, so I don't<br>think it escapes him that as he writes, he is functioning as a Demiurge. <br>Perhaps the dogs/gods are a recognition that while he is the creator of this <br>universe, he acknowledges that he is a false (and perhaps evil) god and that<br>the one true, spiritual God above all should always be recognized foremost.
<br>_______________________________________________<br>Urth Mailing List<br>To post, write <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:urth@urth.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:urth@urth.net">urth@urth.net</a><br>Subscription/information: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.urth.net/">http://www.urth.net/</a></div><div class="yiv9577392571y_msg_container"> </div><div class="yiv9577392571y_msg_container">Lee, I take it back. I do feel that what he is doing in Long and Short Sun is actually directly related to his biography. Rosemary and Wolfe marry, and Plant Engineering provides for their future. My whole concept of the Solar cycle is that it is the marriage of vegetable and animal through a mysterious, plant engineering process (but not the kind of Plant that Gene's work life involved).<br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></div>
</div><br>It's puns all the way down.<br><br>If there is any one thing about the Solar Cycle that truly and persistently amazes me, it is that Wolfe does indeed deploy literal meanings (and any or all possible puns orthogonal to those meanings) just as you say, Marc---perhaps especially when they are so obvious as to be invisible. And yet he also relies on myth for deep narrative structure AND psychological and descriptive realism. His characters are indeed puppets, often openly and significantly so, and yet feel almost real. (Maybe because we all feel like puppets sometimes.)<br><br>Such complexity simply should not be possible. And yet bumblebees do fly!<br></div> </div> </div> </blockquote></div> </div></body></html>