From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: RE: (urth) contra Summa contra Marcus
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 16:57:12 -0800

> > Well, this is at least plausible. But is there any _textual
> > evidence_ in its favor?

> the analogy of Noah's Ark seems compelling to me

An analogy to an outside source, with no citation of the text at
hand to invite compare with that outside source, hardly constitutes 
"textual evidence." If there's a controlling Biblical analogy, it's
Moses.

In favor of an analogy to the Ark, I suppose one could adduce Typhon's 
attempt to make himself God; against it, however, one might begin with
the highly-minimalist nature of the Ark as vs. the inclusion of many 
cultures aboard the WHORL. Then, too, one can't help but wonder who in 
this analogy would play a role even vaguely analogous to Noah's ...
Remora?

> > While this is clever, it entirely evades the questions
> > actually asked about the genetic issues.

> A fairer reply would be that the life forms are very similar
> indeed except for the limb doubling.

Well, yes. So either we have a totally unexplained shift in huge
portions of the animal kingdom, to a polyploidy that seems to
have no significant ill effect but produces doubled limbs; or
else, equally difficult to explain, beasts ranging from elephants
to crocodiles undergoing mutations that cause their limbs to 
double. Either way, it requires a fair amount of explaining.
Perhaps you'd like to hypothesize some weird retrovirus that
does this?

> The life forms of Blue are nearly all near - analogs of Urth
> forms, with the possible exception of the sea creatures. This
> is not true of Green, where the animals are far more alien, but
> even on Green the animals can eat and be eaten both by Blue and
> Urth fauna.

We might note that this is true of the fauna of a number of alien
worlds in Wolfe texts, from the blue/green pair of FIFTH HEAD to
the homeworld(s) of Hehehethor's monsters and the alzabo. I suspect
Wolfe has some point in mind here, though just what it is has, so 
far, eluded me.

> > > It is not possible that the Blue/Green system could
> > > be gravitationally stable.   Ergo, it is recent.

> > It is not possible _if_ the distances given are accurate.

> Yes it is, anything can happen in a four-body system
> like Sun-Urth-Lune-White fountain.

Well, no: if you assume that Blue is more massive than Green, 
then it _must_ have proportionally greater tidal effects on 
Green than Green does on Blue. Bring Lune close enough to Urth 
to cause the kind of effects we _do_ have described, and Lune 
will be deeply, ah, _disturbed_ by massive seismic activity.
The sewers of the inhumi city won't be clogged by bodies; 
they'll be filled with rubble -- the buildings will fall down
and go boom.

It is _much_ simpler to believe that the distance given is 
wrong.

> 3)  It is possible that Inhumi are native to Lune
> and lived there when it circled round Urth.

There is _nothing_ native to the Moon, but let that
pass. (I find myself wondering about night-gaunts
again, though...)


> > > 1) The large animals of Green
> > > 2) The vast trees of Green

> The trees are specifically mentioned as being **much
> larger than those on Blue**.   Ergo, Green has lower
> gravity than Blue.

This would be in the same way that Northern California
has lower gravity than Vermont?

--Blattid


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