(urth) What's So Great About Ushas?

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

On Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:51:45 +1000 "Roy C. Lackey" 
<rclackey at stic.net> wrote:
>
>I agree that the picture painted for Sev in NEW SUN isn't the same 

>picture
>painted in URTH. Apparently almost everyone on Urth seemed to 
>believe that
>when the New Sun came, all Urth's troubles would be over; the ice 
>would
>retreat, the growing season be extended and who-knows-what-all. 
>Life on Urth
>would be rosy again, as when mankind first went out to seize 
>dominion over
>the galaxy, or at least as good as things were, in material terms, 

>when
>Typhon ruled.
>
>We all know Wolfe never planned to write a fifth book. When he was 

>forced to
>deal with the practical details of bringing the nebulous religious 

>ideal
>behind his original conception to the page, he may have had to 
>change his
>mind about some things. But that's speculation.

Wolfe may well have decided to go down a different route with UOTNS 
than he did with BOTNS. But a couple of points ... 

The picture painted by eidolon-Malrubius *may* have been a lie in 
the original BOTNS. Talos' play of course paints a different 
picture, one more like the UOTNS outcome. At the end of BOTNS we 
are left with two different scenarios (even if we are perhaps more 
inclined not to believe Talos). 

For UOTNS + BOTNS, the eidolon-Malrubius picture is definitely a 
lie. It's not just a matter of Wolfe writing a different story in 
UOTNS, and the two not fitting very well together. By having Apheta 
paint the same (lying) picture to the sailors before landing on 
Yesod, he makes the stories part of the same narrative, at least in 
this respect. He's ruled out one of the scenarios for BOTNS.

In the UOTNS + BOTNS story, whether or not eidolon-Malrubius, the 
Hierodules, Apheta all know that the picture is a lie - I don't 
know. I believe the Hierodules were probably dupes, and if that's 
the case, eidolon-Malrubius was probably one, too. Apheta could 
have been a dupe also, at the time she spoke to the sailors. But 
Tzadkiel surely was never a dupe, and he must surely have been an 
active promoter of the lie, if not its source.

Are we then to believe that such a liar is anything like an angel, 
as commonly understood? Surely only if he is a fallen angel, and if 
he must be considered an angel at all (which I don't believe), I 
would say his real name is probably not "Tzadkiel" ....

>
>As Tzadkiel said at the trial, "The death agonies of the world you 

>know will
>be offered to the Increate." (XXI, 153) (And I've been down this 
>road more
>than once!)

Yep, but it's still fun :) Against all the other evidence, I can't 
take this one statement as evidence that Tz is doing God's will. 
Maybe he thinks he is; maybe he's making a vicious joke.