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From: m.driussi@genie.com Subject: (urth) Adam and Atom Date: Thu, 1 Apr 99 15:38:00 GMT Roy, The focus on the play and its authorship seems to place it entirely in the realm of fiction. Maybe it is more like the Periodical Table of Elements. A document describing real and hypothetical things, however hampered by the language and understanding of the time. Who authored the elements? Well, nobody mortal--they were uncovered (in a way we can no longer say continents were "discovered") by various people at various times. Why does the earliest version differ so much from the latest version? Further refinement. Now that we have the Table and atomic theory, as we cast our eyes back to the ancient Greeks it seems like some of them were very close to the Truth as we now know it--did =they= discover it and then lose it? No, they did not, but they were among the pioneers who began the process by which the Table came into being. My point being that the play is a Truth (Briah/Yesod, the whole deal) rendered in terms that its illiterate audience can grasp in some way, shape, or form, at one entertaining sitting. As for the universe of the hard choice, or "why Urth must be destroyed so that Ushas can be created." That is the central point of the entire Urth Cycle, after all. While we might all wish for the rivers of milk and honey of the New Jerusalem in =this= universe, skypie for everyone in the here and now with no guilt and no regrets, still the text resists such utopia. But it isn't as if Severian doesn't =try=: for example, in the lazaret at the front, Severian suddenly tries to heal everybody at once. The Claw shuts down. What this means =exactly= depends upon several factors, including how you interpret the Claw (dumb object or intelligent other) and/or the nature of healing it provides (it seems to leach from Severian's life force--thus, it might be physically impossible for him to heal a whole tent full: it would kill him and make them feel only slightly better. The Claw as circuit breaker.). But here is one case where Severian tries and is thwarted. Without getting religious about it, the text also makes it quite plain that death is not a terminus; so, not in anyway to diminish the grimness of the Flood, nor to shy away from the "Anti-christ" aspects of Severian; but still--who weeps for the countless krill eaten by the whale? Again, we are talking about a fiction. The best fiction involves Conflict. Tragedies involve Suffering and Sacrifice. Utopias are inherently Boring. Easy Solutions are Not Satisfying. =mantis= *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/