From: "Chris" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Blue as Ushas - long
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 07:58:43 +0000

And another lurker emerges from the shadows...

Greets all, I have been reading the list for a month or four now. I'm very 
impressed with the quality of discussion here, and the archives have helped 
me on numerous occasions so far. I finally signed up for the list to post 
something, but the topic you were on at the time has passed and there's no 
use dragging that out. But now that I'm here I might as well post, eh?

I've been following this argument, and while as far as the integrity of the 
works are concerned I don't think Blue being (or not being) Ushas makes any 
difference, nonetheless I think that the FTL angle is a red herring.

It stands to reason that the ship itself wasn't made for FTL travel, 
otherwise it wouldn't have been made a generation ship. The ship could be 
accelerated to light speed by a miracle, of course, but generally speaking 
the Outsider doesn't work that way. Yes, God does work in mysterious ways, 
but there's a certain perversity involved in manifesting divine power to 
change the course of a starship and violate the laws of physics, and yet 
working so indirectly (through Silk) on affairs inside the starship. As far 
as the time stoppage, if this were a product of the ship's velocity then 
everyone would have experienced it, not just Silk - not to mention there are 
some other effects of such phenomena that would have been rather disruptive 
to the Whorl.

Well, hopefully this post hasn't been too lengthy or wasteful. For my own 
selfish reasons, I'll extend it one more paragraph though. I'm currently 
reading _Soldier of Arete_ for the first time, and have not read Herodotus, 
though I would like to - I'm getting a copy this weekend, in fact, and I 
wondered if anyone here had a translation they would particularly recommend 
above all others. Also related to _Soldier_, I was rather struck by the 
similarity between Latro's depression and the despair experienced by Silk 
toward the end of LS, I was wondering if anyone had commented on that 
before. Not that I think the two are related, but I think they are so 
similar that it makes me suspect that the circumstances behind both may have 
a lot in common.

Peace,
Chris


>Hi Roy! You wrote:
>
>"Unless you are suggesting that Typhon launched the _Whorl_ for his own
>reasons that had nothing to do with a planned return to either Urth or
>Ushas--that if it did return to the planet from which it was launched, it
>did so by accident or third-party design--then I don't see how Blue can be
>Ushas."
>
>Bingo!  That's precisely my argument.  Typhon is the biggest jerk in the
>universe.  I think that's the reason the Whorl leaves at the end of SS.  
>Pas
>realizes he's been had; that all he's done is taken one big walk around the
>block. Heh heh heh.
>
>You also say:
>
>"Remember that David Hartwell apparently thought that the original four
>volumes of the NS needed some sort of coda, which led Wolfe to write URTH. 
>I
>don't know, but I suspect, that Wolfe felt some obligation to tie the LS 
>and
>SS series to NS. Wolfe corresponds with various members of this list, has
>answered questions submitted by list members about the LS books, and was
>probably aware before he wrote it that many of his most faithful readers
>*wanted* Sev to make an appearance in SS. I feel almost certain that the
>business about Sev's "sister" in SS was a direct bow in this general
>direction."
>
>I like to think that Wolfe wouldn't pander to the crowd (forgive the harsh
>phrasing but it seems the most apt) and as I said before I don't believe 
>it,
>but of course it's possible.
>
>and last:
>
>"Or are you suggesting that the Blue of Horn's day was in the far future of
>the Ushas that Sev saw? That a new civilization (Neighbors) had risen from
>the mud of Urth-come-Ushas, that the new civilization had fallen to ruin,
>both on Ushas and Lune, and abandoned both worlds for greener pastures
>around another star?"
>
>Bullseye once again.  Though I'm honestly not sure where the Neighbors have
>gone.
>
>Don



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