(urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)

[John Watkins]

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 11:51 AM, Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Yep.
> And a torturer can become a savior by acting like one.
> And it adds a more meaningful dimension to Horn becoming Silk.
> And a con-man can turn from the "evil twin" to the "good twin," etc., etc.
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>
>
> *To:* The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
> *Sent:* Mon, April 19, 2010 10:44:13 AM
>
> *Subject:* Re: (urth) The Sorcerer's House Questions (*Major Spoilers*)
>
> My own take on New Sun is that the aliens are the dupes of the Increate.  I
> have almost no textual support for this, except for the conversation in Long
> Sun in which someone (Incus?) says that if a demon pretends to be a god the
> god will convent them into himself.  While Incus isn't necessarily the best
> guide, it's confirmed by the Outsider in Exodus:
>
> "As I am claiming Kypris even now because love always proceeds from me,
> real love, true love.  First romance."
> So if the Hieros are evil aliens duping Severian by pretending to be angels
> and archangels in the service of the Increate, they'll wind up being angels
> and archangels in the service of the Increate, at least indirectly and
> eventually.
>   On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 11:18 AM, Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>>    >>One thing that's significant about Wolfe's reliance on unreliable
>> narrators, and I think this is most explicit in Long Sun and Short Sun,
>> >>is that he's mirroring an >important aspect of Christian religious
>> faith.  Believers, for the most part, rely upon the Gospels, accounts
>> >>that are, by their natural, unreliable.  Wolfe seems to think that this
>> is or can be a rational choice, but he's not interested in soft-pedalling
>> >>the complications this entails.  But maybe there's a Chesteronian idea
>> at work as well, which is that stories that are *compelling *are more
>> >>likely to be true--that human beings naturally seek to order things into
>> coherent and interesting narratives because we think that such
>> >>narratives best help us to make sense of the world.
>>
>> I like this a lot.
>>
>> It also speaks to Severian's dilemma: could he just be a dupe of alien
>> creatures AND an actual messiah figure? Even false things can be true.
>>
>>
>>
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>
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