(urth) note Re: Short Sun blog

[Daniel Petersen]

Lee Burman wrote:
'For me, the underpinnings of BotNS are as an exploration of the interaction
between
pagan gods and Judeo-Christianity. Wolfe did this by creating an Earth twin
where
The Flood and Jesus never happened, allowing the pagan gods to have
continued dominion
far into the future of where we on Earth are now.'
Yes, it seems clear this is a central theme of the entire Solar Cycle (and
possibly of the Soldier series as well, which I haven't read yet; and
also Wolfe explictly stated that in The Wizard Knight saga he was exploring
chivalry in a world without Christianity [paraphrase from online video, easy
to google]).  My question is just *how* does he do this in BotNS?  How does
a non-existent faith (in the world of Urth where 'The Flood and Jesus never
happened' - assuming this is a correct assumption) 'interact' with a sort of
alternate 'paganism'?  Is this a more or less *allegorical* move on Wolfe's
part, where we see Severian the Christ-*like* figure in the midst of pagan
'lostness' and draw the parallels to our own experienced  history of earth?

Or is it just all wrong to assume this is happening in some other galaxy or
universe or what have you and that we are indeed witnessing a far future of
our own earth with often vague but persistent traces of the Catholic faith
(that is then parodied in BotLS)?

I believe it is said Wolfe himself said BotNS was happening in our remote
past.  But do we have to trust him on this?

On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 2:33 PM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> >David Stockhoff- Actually, the assumption that at least most life in the
> NS/LS/SS
> >universe has the same biochemistry. The inhumi feed on both humans and
> >Neighbors, for example. And then you have the alzabo.
>
> Yep. And The Mother and Seawrack are down there eating drowned human
> sailors and, I
> think, Neighbor sailors before that. That's the picture I get from the Sun
> series-
> a galaxy of creatures able to eat each other and share their physical and
> mental
> being and existence.
>
> Is this because Urthly humans spread out across the galaxy and mutated into
> a myriad
> of creatures? Or is it because a parasitic race feeding on multiple species
> serve
> as a vector for genetic sharing and splicing, like a virus for bacteria
> cells or even
> oncogenes in humans. Perhaps some combination of these processes?
>
> I think the suggestions for this stuff are clear to see in the story.
> Identifying exactly
> which process created each superhuman character is probably not so
> important. Only the
> possibilities matter, which is all I've ever argued for.
>
>
> For me, the underpinnings of BotNS are as an exploration of the interaction
> between
> pagan gods and Judeo-Christianity. Wolfe did this by creating an Earth twin
> where
> The Flood and Jesus never happened, allowing the pagan gods to have
> continued dominion
> far into the future of where we on Earth are now.
>
> I'm glad Wolfe gave us various possibilities for the origin of such
> creatures as Erebus,
> Zeus, Typhon, Gabriel, Odin, Arioch, Abaia, Tzadkiel, etc. But at the end
> of the day, for
> the purpose of this story, I think it is more important to understand what
> they are rather
> than where they came from.
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