From: "Andrew Bollen" 
Subject: Re: (urth) New Wolfe online
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2003 03:41:18 +1100


Shell wrote:

Although of course there's always the temptation to try to place any Wolfe
work in an Urth context (and I also wondered if this was Urth, although I
thought that if this was Urth it was post New Sun, that we had repeated the
cycle, although I do like your "alternate history" theory), I finally
thought that this was a (mostly) straight-forward allegory about treating
Gaia, Mother Earth, properly.  We could have saved her by acting with more
forethought instead of repeating the tragedy of the commons on a global
scale.

----------------------------------------------------

I agree. At least on a first reading, it's very straightforward.

As for "We could have taken her with us" etc, I think it obviously means
"taken her to the stars", speaking of humanity in general. They left her
behind, so they end up with sterile white ships, no trees, no birds etc.





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