(urth) the prime calcula/his citadel and other quotes

[Marc Aramini]

And anyway, how cool is it that Wolfe made his conciliator figure slaughter humanity and his Satan figure preserve it not only in the whorl but possibly contributing his genetic stock to one of the few unarguably "good" characters in the sun universe?

I always felt that Wolfe was at heart a religious allegorist but no one else makes allegories that are so slippery and mutable and difficult to pin down in interpretation.  Wolfe shows us over and over how evil ultimately serves good, a counter to one of Thecla's best points about how nonsensical religious ideas of reward and punishment are before and after death, when the Diety who could change all refuses to do anything until it is too late, when He then decides only to punish.