(urth) Grand Unified Theory

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

That reminds me of something Severian says when he is in the mountains. He muses on various topics relating to magic and says "What is not said is important. But what is said is more important."

This could be a tenet of Wolfeanism and a useful principle to apply to his fiction. We know that what his narrators do not tell us is important, but we should recall that what they tell us is more important. For example, Dave Tallman's interpretation of 7AN fills in lots of blanks, but also relies on positive information, such as (1) the forgery machine and (2) the presumptive forgery itself.

I wonder if this can help us figure out what to do with Inire. Yes, he is a gap, a void, a vacuum, a cipher, and therefore a mystery. But is he a very important one? Surely Wolfe would have told us a little more if he was.

--- On Fri, 8/27/10, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Grand Unified Theory
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Friday, August 27, 2010, 12:50 PM

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:
\> For me it is a small intuitive leap to further assume that the angels and
> demons of the Bible fit into a similar explanatory framework as gods and monsters
> of pagan mythology for Gene Wolfe. Same story, same "beings", different names and
> interpretations of their behavior.

I think angels would be the same beings when they are in obedience to
God, while devils would be the same beings when in rebellion. The
pagan gods are an interesting question - they are receiving the
worship due only to God, but perhaps they are being used to guide
worship away from worse beings (i.e., devils).


> But what about Father Inire and The Cumaean? How are we to judge their behavior? Does their
> hooded, cowled, old appearance mean anything? Are they more Yoda or Emperor Palpatine?
>
> Hierodules wear masks to cover their youth and beauty while their height remains apparent. I
> get the impression that Father Inire's and The Cumaean's shortness and oldness is not a
> disguse. So, I must guess they are not analogues to angelic beings but are rather analogues to
> pagan gods or fallen angels or perhaps both.  Pagan gods and fallen angels might be exactly
> the same thing in Gene Wolfe's philosophy.

Again, the question is whether they are in obedience to God (or to the
representatives of God they are given -- viz. Gabriel's comment) or
not. We have no real way of knowing, that I can see, whether Inire and
the Cumaean are or not. Certainly, though, they do not seem to demand
worship, which would be a point in their favor.

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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