(urth) Typhon's nature

[Lee Berman]

>David Stockhoff:

 

>A hermaphroditic Deity represents an ideal union of what here on
> Earth is forever divided. A self-pollinating "God" would fit right in, 

>in Briah, with its perpetual, cyclical regeneration.  Remind you of anyone, 

>Lee? 

 


David, were you hinting at Tzadkiel> David, were you hinting at Tzadkiel (who appears in male and in female form and would seem to
>
> have something to do with universal reproduction)? Tzadkiel has a son, Venant, and those such
>
> as Apheta are the "larvae" of the hierogrammates.  But we are not given enough information to
>
> know how such offpring are reproduced. Self-pollination..hm...I tellya, it might make sense.
>
> Hard to imagine Tzadkiel performing the sex act in the usual human way with some other. And
>
> Tzadkiel compares himself to a sponge animal...> David, were you hinting at Tzadkiel (who appears in male and in female form and would seem to
>
> have something to do with universal reproduction)? Tzadkiel has a son, Venant, and those such
>
> as Apheta are the "larvae" of the hierogrammates.  But we are not given enough information to
>
> know how such offpring are reproduced. Self-pollination..hm...I tellya, it might make sense.
>
> Hard to imagine Tzadkiel performing the sex act in the usual human way with some other. And
>
> Tzadkiel compares himself to a sponge animal...> David, were you hinting at Tzadkiel (who appears in male and in female form and would seem to
>
> have something to do with universal reproduction)? Tzadkiel has a son, Venant, and those such
>
> as Apheta are the "larvae" of the hierogrammates.  But we are not given enough information to
>
> know how such offpring are reproduced. Self-pollination..hm...I tellya, it might make sense.
>
> Hard to imagine Tzadkiel performing the sex act in the usual human way with some other. And
>
> Tzadkiel compares himself to a sponge animal...> David, were you hinting at Tzadkiel (who appears in male and in female form and would seem to
>
> have something to do with universal reproduction)? Tzadkiel has a son, Venant, and those such
>
> as Apheta are the "larvae" of the hierogrammates.  But we are not given enough information to
>
> know how such offpring are reproduced. Self-pollination..hm...I tellya, it might make sense.
>
> Hard to imagine Tzadkiel performing the sex act in the usual human way with some other. And
>
> Tzadkiel compares himself to a sponge animal...David, were you hinting at Tzadkiel..Tzadkiel compares himself to a sponge animal...

 

 

>You win the prize! I'm not making any particular argument here. I just think 

>Wolfe has definitely thought these things over. He might simply have asked 
>himself, "What would a sentient sponge or a species of angels really be 
>like"? But it is a little eerie that we have touched on such matters as 
>divine incest and found resonance all over Briah.

 

 

It really is eerie. My head is still swimming a bit from the resonance of the

divinely ambiguous father-son and incest themes through all 12 Sun books.

 

I guess if we rely only on the text we could conclude WOlfe's intentions might be

purely superficial with no thought of mytho-religious allegory. But then we read

in an interview that he thinks Jesus Christ is underappreciated. That part of his

writing is meant to illustrate this by creating worlds where Christ is absent.

 

For me, the interview quotes take the skeleton hints of a pagan universe in this

story and puts flesh on the bones. (of course I'm not saying it has to work that

way for everyone)

 

Thanks for bringing up the Trinity, btw (thanks also to Mathew Weber for earlier 

mentioning forgiveness of sin as the role of Jesus Christ). Never having been 

Christian I tend to forget some things...

 

...though I just noticed I am paternal-Judeo-Christian enough to have called 

Tzadkiel "he" when the sponge comparison was made when Tzadkiel was female. Or 

perhaps that is mostly because Tzadkiel is male during the majority of his/her 

appearance in the story.