From: "cilluff1@optonline.net" 
Subject: RE: (urth) 5HoC + The Long Sun
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 16:52:50 -0500

James Wynn wrote:

<>
=20
I recently read it for the first time, after having already reading the
Urth/LS/SS cycle, and thought that FHOC seemed like a "dry run" for the
Urth cycle=2E  Of course, many of parallel themes (the nature of identity =
is
a biggie) that they share appear in many Wolfe works, so his predilicition=

to explore such themes could account for it, but, as you pointed out, ther=
e
are too many factual similarities simply to chalk it up to "well, Wolfe
writes about identity a lot=2E"  I don't think they are the same fictional=

universe per se, but that the Urth cycle seems to be a full fleshed-out
treatment of the ideas (both philosophical and plot-wise) that Wolfe
utilizes in FH=2E

<<>=
>

Not to deny your parallel, but to expand on it, but the parallel that
struck me was the similarity between the "Are the colonists of St=2E C/St=2E=
 A
really Abos but we have forgotten" line of FH and the "are the Neighbors
really evolved or somehow dualized humans/is Blue or Green really Urth"
debate=2E=20

<<>

I actually really like that one, and it does add to the feeling that St=2E=

Croix/St=2E Anne are some of the planets early colonized in the first wave=

out from earth/urth=2E

<>

This definitely foreshaddows the scanning of Typhon & Co=2E and Silk=2E  T=
his
is a great example (as are the twin planets, the pre-chems) of why I think=

Wolfe had these great ideas for a story that he used in FH and which he
then fully explored in the Urth cycle=2E =20

<>

That's a great take on Mr=2E Million=2E  You also then beg the question, w=
hat
does it mean to be alive, or to die?  Is Mr=2E Million the same "person,"
does he survive, i=2Ee=2E, still live, post-surgery, or does he die, to be=

replaced by something else with his memory?  The same can be asked of
Severian, Horn, and Silk=2E   =20

<<<11=2E
Cave Canem, a whorehouse whose nickname means 'Beware of the Dog' and run =
by
a 'pack' of Wolfs
=3D
Orchid's in a city built over a labyrinth filled with vicious dog-monsters=

that are identified by the soldiers as the 'real' gods of the Whorl=2E>>

FWIW, here are a few others I thought of=2E  The machines that guard the
prison camps foreshadow the Taluses of the LS=2E  The inquisitors of Dr=2E=

Marsch seem like the Ayuntamiento=2E  And Mr=2E Million foreshadow's Lemur=
 &
Co=2E, humans who transplant their minds into machines, as distinguished f=
rom
"mere" chems, whose identities are created by man=2E

The plot devices and metaphysical questions that the two works share in
common definitely make me think that FH is Wolfe's first run at these idea=
s
and that the LS/SS books are his full exposition=2E

- Shell=20

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