Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 13:20:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Jerry Friedman 
Subject: Re: (urth) not so sure about this...


--- maa32  wrote:
> Andy stated:
>        As I thought - Wolfe is obeying internally generated mythic
> imperatives 
> in creating these patterns. He does not know if Ushas/Lune is
> Blue/Green,
>        and he can't tell us.
>        As I thought - Wolfe is obeying internally generated mythic
> imperatives 
> in
>        creating these patterns. He does not know if Ushas/Lune is
> Blue/Green,
>        and he can't tell us.
> >
> all I can say is that Nick did not ask specifically if Urth was Blue; he
> asked 
> if St. Croix and St. Anne fit in thematically. Wolfe claims he does not
> know 
> if he is using mythic patterns in that quote, not that he doesn't know
> whether 
> urth and blue are the same.  He just doesn't know how St. Anne and St.
> Croix 
> might be related ...

In fact, Nick Gevers asked two questions, and it's not clear whether
Wolfe answered the first, the second, or both.

NG: Can your readers usefully view The Fifth Head of
Cerberus as being set in the same science-fictional universe as New
Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun? Why does Fifth Head's pattern of
blue/green sister worlds recur so tantalisingly in Urth/Lune,
Blue/Green?

GW: I don't know.

I suspect that Andy Robertson is right that Wolfe is saying that he
doesn't know why the blue/green pattern recurs, but wrong in saying
that Wolfe doesn't know whether the planets are "really" the same.
Wolfe may also be saying that he doesn't know whether readers can
usefully link the fictional universes.  He doesn't say a word about
whether Blue is Ushas--largely, perhaps, because Nick didn't ask
(although he certainly gave Wolfe the opportunity to comment).
...

> but I think Gene knows whether Urth is Blue or not.
...

I strongly suspect you're right, and if anyone else gets a chance to
interview him, I hope he or she asks straight out, in three words.

-- 
Jerry Friedman

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