(urth) Father Inire Theory cont.

[David Stockhoff]

Well, that's an interesting approach. Yes, there can be contradictions 
in literature, just as there are contradictions in gods.

But why can't Severian simply be a schoolboy who has never met a girl? 
Or who has even had sex as part of "games" with the witch girls but 
never in an adult context, as a man with a woman?

These are telling distinctions on their own.

On 12/11/2010 5:27 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
>> Andrew Mason: It seems to me, though, that this runs together two different things.
>> There is the literal/symbolic distinction; these can exist together; a
>> candle can both be just a light source (literally) and have some Satanic significance
>> (symbolically). And there is the distinction between two literal meanings, surface and
>> hidden; and these, I feel, are not compatible; Severian cannot both be a virgin and have
>> homoerotic experience.
>
> This was an important enough response that I thought it needed its own entry. I will respond
> by saying you are wrong. Severian CAN be both a virgin and non-virgin. The reason is because
> he is not a material being. His substance is a product of text and mental images. Since the
> main text suggests he is a virgin and the sub-text suggests he is not, we can have two
> contradictory mental images formed. Which is right? That's the point. Neither or both!
>
> I am not engaging in silly sophistry. I believe Wolfe writes with the exact principles I just
> outlined in mind. There is a need for the ability to maintain simultaneous, contradictory
> visions to understand Gene Wolfe's work. (especially when it comes to Yesod ;- ))
>
> Why? Because that is the only way you can understand God. God who is of the Spirit and the opposite
> of material things yet who created all that we see.  How else can you understand an entity who is
> simultaneously the source of all good and all evil. The one who created Heaven and allowed
> Hell to be created. Who gave strict orders to Adam and Eve then provided irresistable temptation.
>
> I hope this makes sense.  I asked Gerry Quinn if he believed in God for this reason. If he does
> there may be a chance he can understand this. If he is an unredeemable materialist I must imagine
> him saying, "no, God can't be 100% good and 100% evil; that is impossible; is he is then he can't exist".
>
> *****
>
> On a slightly less serious note, I've known girls who are both virgins and non-virgins, using the
> 1 year abstinence rule to regain virgin status. One actually can find validity in this if we accept
> that in creating our own self image we operate as a Creator and simulataneous contradictory truths
> are possible. In fact I will go out on a limb and suggest that if you are unable to grasp contradictory
> truths, you are incapable of understanding God, Gene Wolfe and women ;- ). 		 	   		
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