(urth) All is Shadow and dust

[David Duffy]

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, maru wrote:

> Chris wrote:
>
>> To summarize before trying to answer, what I take it you're asking is 
>> (shifting the focus from Severian to the Hieros, since on this view 
>> Severian is just a tool of the Hieros) whether the Hieros, as higher 
>> beings, are above judgment with regard to their plans for Urth. (Although 
>> to be honest I'm not sure that the Hieros plan for things to be this way, 
>> or if they simply accept it as an inevitability and willingly play their 
>> roles).
>> 
>> Following Aquinas, God is beyond human judgment and the Hieros could be 
>> themselves just tools of God, or else beings who operate, like God, in a 
>> sphere where our judgments are not qualified to reach. Theologically 
>> speaking once you've taken this first move, of allowing that Sev is really 
>> a tool of a higher power with no choice in the matter, you've mooted the 
>> whole question before you begin; this way of looking at Sev is not a 
>> perspective which allows us to *ask* ethical questions in the first place.

> ... Personally, I see little of the normative claim in UOTNS- 
> things *are* explained and justified, if not well or completely, and the Hs 
> do not act utterly superior; they go so far as to repeatedly test Autarchs 
> and get some semblance of permission from Urthians (the battle), so they 
> definitely don't believe in the normative claim, and if the Hs don't accept 
> it, who could have the right? The Increate? But the Increate never 
> intervenes.
>

In _Soldier_, Short Sun and Wizard-Knight, Wolfe spends a bit of time on 
judgement by humans of gods.  The Giants-proper (not the little ones ;)) 
are of Skai, and as such should be respected, but not admired or 
worshipped; Loki is more ambiguous.  And on multiple occasions, we hear 
the argument about demons taking over the role of God becoming 
indistinguishable from the real thing (cf _The Day after Judgement_). And 
the real thing (righteous authority deriving ultimately from the Increate) 
is recognizable, presumably using ethical criteria.

After saying that, Wolfe's worlds are all high mortality settings: not a
lot of happy immortal uploads here ;).  To a medieval Christian viewpoint,
and perhaps to the Hieros, death and suffering are ubiquitous, *mysterious*,
necessary waystations on the infinite journey.  The offering up of
suffering to the Increate comment by Apheta comes right out of tradition.

David Duffy.
-- 
| David Duffy (MBBS PhD)                                              ,-_|\
| email: david.Duffy at qimr.edu.au   ph: INT+61+7+3362-0217 fax: -0101 /     *
| Genetic Epidemiology Lab, Queensland Institute of Medical Research \_,-._/
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