(urth) travelling north

[John Watkins]

I think this has been covered, right?

1)  Obviously there are intentional parallels between Severian and Jesus.
2)  Obviously Severian is not a literal stand-in for or equivalent to Jesus.

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 6:15 PM, Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----
>
> On 6/3/2010 2:56 PM, James Wynn wrote:
> >> On 6/3/2010 2:54 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> >>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 12:49 PM, James Wynn<crushtv at gmail.com>  wrote:
> >>>> Wolfe has said that Severian is a "Christ-figure".
> >>> Actually, Wolfe has specifically _denied_ that any of his heroes are
> >>> Christ-figures, and prefers the term "Christian figure."
> >> Well, even more so then.
>
> Here's the quotation (or one version).  The "you" is James Jordan.
>
> "And as you've said in your letters, I don't think of
> Severian as being a Christ figure; I think of Severian as being a
> Christian figure. He is a man who has been born into a very
> perverse background, who is gradually trying to become better. I
> think that all of us have somewhere in us an instinct to try and
> become better. Some of us defeat it thoroughly. We kill that part
> of ourselves, just as we kill the child in ourselves. It is very
> closely related to the child in us."
>
> http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2tmhh/wolfejbj.html
>
> > On the other hand, the intended parallels do pile up. To once again quote
> Castle of the Otter/Castle of Days:
> > "Many of us have read so often that he was a "humble carpenter"...The man
> who built the built the cross was as much a carpenter too...The only object
> we
> > are specifically told he made was not a table or a chair, but a
> whip...Christ knew not only the pain of torture but the pain of being a
> torturer..."
>
> That's a good one, which I'd forgotten.  But it doesn't mean Severian is
> like Christ or that he did for his universe what Wolfe believes Jesus did
> for ours.  Severian is far from perfect.
>
> Wolfe also points out a parallel to someone who was presumably not a savior
> at all, the carpenter who made the cross.
>
> Jerry Friedman
>
>
>
>
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