(urth) Gnosticism & Wolfe (was "traveling north")

[James Wynn]

 >>The figurative worlds of Severian and Silk are Gnostic
 >>ones not Judeo-Apostolic ones. Those protagonists act,
 >>and achieve, within their worlds as the Gnostic Christ does.
 >>Not as the Johanine Christ actsJames, you should post this kind of 
stuff more often.

 >Would it be safe to say that the apparent theme or motif of incest 
committed
 >by Severian derives directly from the twinned sexes comprising the 
gnostic God?
 >If so, necessarily, Valeria must be Severian's sister, as has been 
suggested.

There's nothing inconsistent about incest between the important 
characters of Gnosticism (the influence of Egyptian philosphy and myth 
ensures that). Norea was said in some writings to be the wife and sister 
of Seth, while simultaneously half of a syzygy. That said, who Norea was 
depends on who you are reading. For others, she is the wife of Noah (a 
hostile relationship there --like Sev and Valeria-- since she burned 
down his ark three times). The problem with saying "Valeria must be 
Severian's sister" is that Wolfe so happily plays with the definitions 
of terms. In The Book of the Short Sun, the Rajan calls Jahlee (the 
inhuma bearing, I believe, Chenille's soul) his daughter and his sister. 
So you're not just dealing with the twisted and unintuitive world of 
Gnosticism, but also the twisted worlds of Wolfe where little is as it 
seems.

J.