Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 09:01:14 -0500
Subject: Re: (urth) Some problems if the Pancreator/Outsider is theHoly
From: Adam Stephanides 

on 6/10/02 4:02 PM, James Jordan at jbjordan4@cox.net wrote:

>>> .... remember that Urth is a universe-cycle before ours. These events
>>> predate the promise to Noah by about 50 billion years maybe. We don't know
>>> that such a promise had been given to any Urnoah in Urth history. Nor,
>>> returning to the first point, do we have to assume that God managed Briah
>>> precisely the same way He manages our cycle.
>>> 
>> 
>> I've come across this stated in the archives before; is the source an
>> extra-textual Wolfe interview or the like?
> 
> Yes.

Textual and theological difficulties aside, I really don't like this idea.
I won't say it ruins the books for me, but it does detract substantially
from their sense of wonder and the uncanny.  It's as if had declared that
THE DYING EARTH was really the Dying
some-other-planet-that-happens-to-be-called-Earth.

Since, afaik, there's no indication in the original BotNS that the books are
taking place in a previous universe, I'm tempted to speculate (and hope)
that this was an idea Wolfe thought of after writing the original books.

--Adam


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