(urth) travelling north

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

I think it's #2 that gives some people heartburn.

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 3:19 PM, John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes