Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 17:41:26 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: (urth) Boy Called Frog and interplanetary war

Blattid quoted me and wrote:
>> To Josh Geller: But I don't recall an interplanetary war in "The Tale of a
>> Boy Called Frog."
>
>Dude, the whole bit where Frog's brother comes and they fight and they build
>the city.

Umm, that's the Romulus and Remus bit, iirc.

When I read Romulus and Remus, I don't see "interplanetary war" . . . do
you?  Fish and Frog are certainly urban vs. rural, without question, but I
myself cannot see planet vs. planet.

The tale has ways of saying "offworld."  The mother of Spring Wind clearly
lives offworld, "beyond the shores of Urth."  "The World of Shadows" is
also offworld, and if it has a real location in the solar system it would
be our Pluto, the planet Dis of the Commonwealth.

The vocabulary is there to speak of interplanetary war in the story of Fish
and Frog, but I do not see it being spoken of in the story.  Well wait: I
see it in the part about Spring Wind--is that the point that Josh Geller
was trying to make?  Spring Wind is out there, battling across the solar
system--yes.  But this is far and above beyond the level that Fish and Frog
are at, fighting first together for their lost legacy on/of Urth, then
fighting each other over it.

=mantis=


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