(urth) Typee, incidentally
Son of Witz
Sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org
Fri Nov 12 10:48:32 PST 2010
On Nov 12, 2010, at 10:38 AM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> David Stockhoff: This solution, that missionary work is "just and holy" but missionaries
>> are "earthly" and "productive of evil," is so reminiscent of one "solution" to the puzzle
>> presented by the Hierodules, Vodalus, and the actions of the undines toward Severian---that
>> even evil forces do the work of the Increate---that I think they must be related. In fact, the
>> Heirodules on Urth from the perspective of a citizen of the Commonwealth must resemble an
>> islander's view of missionaries, given the same level of knowledge and grasp of history.
>
> At the end of CotA there is an elaborate blacksmith analogy made to describe the Hierogrammates'
> shaping of humanity (below). I think it may be apt in describing how Wolfe's view of good and
> evil doesn't follow the traditional Christian definitions. Humanity, as the hot piece of metal
> being pounded, might define the solid, cool foundation of the anvil as being "good" and the
> crushing, painful blows of the hammer to be "evil". But the blacksmith would not and could not
> view the process this way. How could He accomplish His shaping by seeking always to elevate the
> anvil and eliminate the hammer?
>
> Brings to mind the questions of why God created Lucifer et al. to fall and created Adam and Eve
> to fail. Also that recently found Lost Gospel of Judas, which suggests Jesus and Judas secretly
> planned the Judas betrayal all along to accomplish their spiritual goals.
Here lies one of the reasons why I'm always confused when people see Severian's ultimate act as a negative or satanic act. Did they miss the point entirely?
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