(urth) the Epitome
Iorwerth Thomas
iorweththomas at hotmail.com
Wed Apr 6 04:29:39 PDT 2005
>From: "Chris" <rasputin_ at hotmail.com>
>>Finally, if Wolfe didn't intend the destruction of Urth and the birth of
>>Ushas to be, in a religious sense, a good thing, why did he write it that
>>way? Why write it at all?
>>
>>-Roy
>
>Do authors intend every event they write about to be interpreted as a good
>thing? Well, that's not quite what I mean. How about: does Wolfe present it
>to us as a good thing, or is it *Severian* who presents it to us as a good
>thing? Again I think this is a shortcut to avoid rationally examining our
>reasons for thinking of the birth of Ushas to be a good thing.
>Unquestioningly accepting the value judgments of the narrator does not
>provide us with solid ground for an interpretation.
>
Particularly if Wolfe intends (in some ways) to provide a critical analysis
of (from a Christian perspective) of both the adequacies and inadequacies of
an Old Testament approach to things. It'd thus be appropriate for there to
be Christ imagery surrounding Severian, as in some ways he's an Old
Testament prophetic figure, and thus (in some Christian views, I think)
prefigures - or in this case, maybe postfigures him (off the cuff, I think
Elijah or Elisha may be good analogues - despite the lack of bears eating
unruly children in the narrative[1] - though I'll have to think about that,
or possibly Joshua[2]).
In some sense, the whole thing could be an issuse of Severian mistaking a
renewed Earth for the Kindom of God. Or something.
The Long Sun/Short Sun books may be of some relevance to this - I'll have to
reread the latter and finish reading the former, and think on that. If this
tentative outline of preliminary possible theory survives the first round of
criticism, of course... :)
Iorwerth
[1] In some ways a pity. I like bears, and think they should always be well
fed.
[2] In the book of Joshua, the attainment of the Promised Land is achieved
via genocide. Not the best start for a nation.
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