(urth) Wolfe and Catholicism
Eric Mattingly
eric_mattingly at hotmail.com
Tue Nov 30 20:49:05 PST 2004
Not to switch subjects too quickly, but I think that an interesting line of
discussion has been broached. But on the whole successor thing-- I think
that we have to see Wolfe as building on Tolkien's work rather than
mirroring it precisely. Both are indeed philosophical writers, but I
honestly find more philosophical depth and-- even more importantly--
questioning in Wolfe. And here is one major reason I see that. Whereas
Tolkien is interested in establishing a history, Wolfe is interested in
establishing a path of evolution (as has been said already in our
discussion). Where the former wants to establish a mythology, the latter
wants to move beyond mythology into blessedness. Wolfe's use of mythology
then (especially in the Book of the New Sun and Urth of the. . .) has some
uncanny (and conscious I would argue) parallels with the ascent to bliss in
gnostic mythology (this element in the New Sun series deserves a thread of
its own). The dynamic at the heart of the New Sun, then, is one of
evolution at the core-- the universe is being conformed slowly and with
epochal carefulness into an eventual direct communication with the
Pancreator (Ein Sof?).
This leads directly to the question of Wolfe's religious heritage in his own
work. Textually speaking, I believe that trying to apply the term
"christian" to something is moot and bound to fail. Rather, we cannot truly
define Christianity unless it is a kind of mysticism that is beyond language
or a kind of experience at the root of action (a la Kierkegaard) and which
also resists definition. Rather, we get a mixture of acceptance and
reaction to certain ideas that arise from Christianity and which are
patterned in certain ways. The end result of all my babble is to say that I
believe we can call Wolfe more readily a "Catholic" writer than we can a
"Christian writer." My own beliefs lead me to question whether or not
"christianity" even exists, but certainly I can't see how it becomes
embodied textually. As a "Catholic", then, I think it is clear that he is
neither doctrinaire or even orthodox. At the base of the Book of the New
Sun is an idea of evolution that (as I have already said) is gnostic-- but
it is also a variety of a famous almost-heresy called the "apocatastasis"
(restoration) wherein all souls must eventually through the suffering
inherent in their own actions be restored to grace. All will eventually
choose the "good" once the "good" is known. That includes the damned and
satan.
Anyway, I apologize for that mess. That's what you get for thinking as you
write :). I hope that it isn't total tripe.
eric
A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.
-- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
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