(urth) Antipolaric brothers

[Lee Berman]

>Jeff Wilson- I'm pretty sure that Severian's destruction of Typhon shuld be seen to 
>prevent an enormous amount of chaos;
 
When I spoke of Severian in the Destroyer role I was speaking in terms of his cosmic, 
divine role in bringing the Flood which destroys Urth and allows the formation of Ushas.
I consider his conflict with Typhon to be a personal one, though ultimately with divine
implications as we eventually learn from his eventual destiny.
 
 
>Son o'Witz- Severian is a star of light and life, not a dark chaotic force. Typhon is 
>clearly the master of the failed state of humanity that Severian is destined to wash 
>away. Typhon is the crown on the thousands of years of stagnant humanity. Destruction 
>is only one side of Severian's coin. What he did was bring life. The destruction was 
>already in place, in slow motion. He reanimate the sun and urth, he doesn't destroy them.
 
 
Son o', I think you are drifting in the direction that I, and maybe Gene Wolfe, are 
getting at with references to gnostic thought. I am not an expert in this stuff, though 
I've been trying to absorb as much as I can about it lately. I would welcome any 
contributions or suggestions from those who are more knowledgeable than me.
 
In Jeff Wilson's response I get a sense of a worldview of someone with a lifetime of 
immersion in Judeo-Christian religion/philosophy/culture. Almost all of us here share in
that culture.  All our lives we have been consciously and unconsciously conditioned to think 
of light and creation as inherently Good and dark and destruction as inherently Bad. The God 
of the Old Testament is a bringer of light and the Creator of everything and thus He is the 
ultimate in goodness.
 
We know that not all the world nor history embraces the Judeo-Christian view but, perhaps with 
some exceptions, we here have not been immersed in an alternate worldview and can't help but 
always be biased toward Judeo-Christian thinking. I used to think Gnosticism was just an archaic, 
alternative approach to Christianity..sorta connected to Kabbalah or whatever. Not very popular 
or important. I've recently learned otherwise.
 
Some think Gnosticism got its origin in Alexander's empire, allowing a free flow of religious
ideas to flow and mix from the pantheon of the Greeks to the mysticism of India. It was
central to the writings of Plato and still has a strong impact on our mainstream media. It's 
influence can be found from the goat god of the Celts to the Taoism of the Far East (no 
coincidence that the Yin Yang symbol resembles the greek Ouroboros snake which eats its own 
tail). I think Wolfe chooses Persian Eschatology and Genesis names (like Meschia) because of
this region being the geographic and perhaps spiritual center of Gnosticism.
 
Central to the philosophy is that balance between light and dark, creation and destruction is 
needed. One feeds off the other and if one becomes too strong, the whole system will collapse.
I can remember being younger and learning about Hinduism with Creator Brahma, Destroyer Shiva 
and Preserver Vishnu and figuring this was good guys against bad guy and not quite understanding 
why their Hindu believers valued and worshipped them equally.
 
For a couple thousand years, Christianity and Gnosticism have been at odds, each demonizing the 
other. Even modern Gnostics (like Wiccans) consider that Christians have over-elevated an evil
creative, light-bringing demiurge as their god, one who enslaves with an authoritarian iron fist, 
demanding work ethic, obedience, chastity, sobriety and other principles at odds with true human 
nature. The modern Gnostic groups prefer their nature-loving, fun-seeking dark Dionysian god(s).
 
[FWIW- I think this is the religious underpinning of The Matrix movie series and why they cast
an old white guy, with white hair and beard, dressed in white as the oppressive Creator/Architect 
of The Matrix and why they cast a black woman dressed in green as The Oracle/Satan who throws a 
chaotic monkey-wrench into the Architect's carefully calibrated machine.]