(urth) The Outsider

[Andrew Mason]

David Stockhoff wrote:

> On 12/16/2010 2:29 PM, Andrew Mason wrote:
>> I don't see anything to make me say 'This is a
>> universe without Christ' - though at the time the events take place,
>> it's certainly a universe where Christ is not_known_.
> And that is half the point. We can agree on that at least.
>
> Of course, then you have to wonder what happened to him. Perhaps he was
> not crucified; and with no resulting salvation, he was largely forgotten.

Except that I now realise I misspoke. He (if he exists) is not wholly
unknown - the scourging of the animal sellers appears to be a
reference to him, and so, I take it, is the Theoanthropos of _New
Sun_. The religion of Urth is influenced by Christianity in numerous
ways; the religion of the Whorl is a parody of it, though also of
Greek paganism. Christ is not _clearly_ known. And I think this is
unsurprising, for nothing from our culture is clearly known. It was
lost during the first empire; later it was restored, but in an
obscured form.

I'm not suggesting this is the only possible interpretation. Perhaps
this world has only a Jesus-analogue, perhaps it has only myths. But
if it were a world where Jesus existed, then given the general facts
about the obscuring of cultural memory, what we see doesn't seem
surprising to me.