From: "Alice K. Turner" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Blue is Hell!
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 17:38:00 -0400


No, Adam, I don't think Blue and Green are Hell or Purgatory. I think Wolfe
contemplated a "what if?" pair of worlds where mythological spirits and
personages that Catholics are still taught to believe in are real, and
colonizing humans must cope as best they can. Having come up with Quetzal
and his ilk (he may not yet have thought of the ilk when he first limned
Quetzal, a terrific character), he then devised angel figures, the Neighbors
(and in the Bible, too, angels are much more elusive creatures than demons),
and a saint struggling literally with his own humanity but also able to
perform miracles. Now let's see, how can I (Wolfe) put this into sfal terms?
It's a good concept and on that level not a bad working-out; throw in the
Mother as Rahab, or Tiamat left over from an older religion, and Seawrack
from legend--a terrible temptation to sin in spite of herself. (Or is she
cannier than we know?)

Adam, I agree with you about the slap-dashery of these books, and have said
so before. (Of the three, IGJ was the one I liked best when first reading
it.) But the reason I'll stick with my Biblical reading is that for me it
works. Catholic mythology--doctrine, I guess, they call it--explains a lot
of things here. Some (not all) of the mess comes from the attempt to tie the
whole huge machine of 11 books in three series conceived at different times
for different reasons together. It's like Windows!

-alga



--