(urth) Severian as Jonah

[DAVID STOCKHOFF]

Perhaps. But then Severian doesn't get swallowed by a whale, either. And Urth is doomed either way, anyway, unlike Nineveh.


An analogy can still be made between the Drowner of Urth and the prototypical conflicted prophet of doom, even if the two might not be theologically or even logically consistent.



________________________________
 From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) Severian as Jonah
 

Interesting idea.  One difference though is that the task of Jonah on his travels was to save Nineveh from its moral corruption, and Severian has the more "mundane" task of bringing the New Sun.  They seem like different "types" of salvation to me. 


On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 3:23 PM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:


>I was watching a TV show on the "Secrets of Christianity" and there was
>a segment on a sea voyage Jesus took. The interesting part (for this
>list) was a mention that Jesus probably took this trip as a deliberate
>attempt at recreating Jonah's voyage. There are a number of parallels to
>be found between Jonah and Jesus (http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/charts/The%20Typology%20of%20Jonah%20and%20Jesus.htm)
>
>The part I found most pertinent to BotNS was the parallel of Jonah spending
>3 days in the belly of the great fish, then being expelled, parallelling
>Jesus' 3 days in the cave then being resurrected.
>
>Previously I had posted about a recurring theme regarding fish mouths and
>caves that I saw in BotNS including the Jurupari reference, the Ouroboros
>story, Abaia and undines, the man-ape cave and the Fomalhaut reference. Though
>I saw this theme, I really didn't understand its significance. Perhaps now I do.
>
>Not everyone agrees but I see Urth (and The Whorl) as a "gnostic" world which,
>despite being more technologically advanced (and declined) than modern earth,
>is spiritually retarded; i.e. they have not yet received Christ. If this is
>the case then perhaps the fish mouth/cave theme is meant to invoke Severian as
>a Jonah-like figure. A precursor who helps prepare the world for a future
>coming of Christ.
>
>FWIW, various translations of the Jonah story list him as swallowed by a whale,
>a great fish and even *a great beast*.
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