From: "Chris" 
Subject: Re: (urth) The Blue Urth Theory
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 10:45:16 +0000

IMHO, there is never a problem of not having enough clues; the problem is, 
rather, that the given set of clues can produce a nearly infinite number of 
internally consistent hypotheses.

There are two ways of approaching the text, then. The first is to attempt to 
divine the author's intent. This is virtually impossible without the 
author's help, no matter *how* many clues he has provided in the text, 
because of the multitude of theories that can be spawned. On the other hand, 
this is an entertaining enough challenge to be worth doing.

The second possibility is to, as a reader, come up with a reading of the 
text that is as aesthetically pleasing (to you) as you can. In this sense we 
are in some way pushing each other to come up with more beautiful 
interpretations in consistency, form, and symmetry among other things - and 
in this context, what the author *meant* has little if anything to do with 
matters. One can look for the simplest explanation, but depending on your 
taste this won't always be the best.

In either case, I have always found the statement that "there are enough 
clues" to be somewhat mocking. Of *course* there are enough clues.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I tend to look at things from the second 
perspective, which lends itself well to tolerance of many different 
interpretations. My main *personal* reason for not favoring the Blushas 
theory is that it seems thematically unwieldy, and seems to require a sort 
of deus ex machina to work. Other people may well not share my tastes in 
this matter, though.

Regards,

Chris - wondering if "Cheese" is a valid Vironese name.


>As I said in an earlier posting, I believe that Mr. Wolfe places all the 
>necessary elements to an adequate comprehension of his work within the work 
>itself, but I don't believe that the conjecture of a character within the 
>work is necessarily adequate evidence in its own right, as his 
>all-too-human characters are often mistaken or hasty in drawing 
>conclusions, as are we all...


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