(urth) Oannes

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Lee Berman 


> Given my observation, I am suggesting that Wolfe also sees an evolution in the Judeo-
> Christian deity and uses the Sun Series as a fictional way of illustrating how it
> might work. I really could be wrong on that, I know. But I think it is possible.
I would say, rather, that Wolfe takes for granted that our views of the Divine evolve, and it is part of the backdrop of the entire series.
Just as the oldest stories of our ancestors can be told as well against a hi-tech background (Wolfe goes out of his way to demonstrate this) so the various conceptions [I am using the ‘mental conception’ sense] of God find echoes throughout the future.  (Wolfe goes out of his way to demonstrate this also, and of course the events themselves of New Sun and to some degree Long Sun reflect certain Judeo-Christian stories.) 
I don’t think he has any particular hang-ups about whether Christianity survives in its current form, or any theological issues regarding the flooding of Urth.  Those aren’t what the books are about.  Certainly in the places and times we visit there is no indication that Christianity in its current form is practiced. 
Insofar as the actual storyline  of New Sun strongly reflects traditions associated with Christianity, it would actually have been extremely difficult to write New Sun and have Christianity in any way prominent, even if Wolfe wanted to do that.  As I noted before, it would be like having Jesus running around in Narnia – it would make the tale quite impossible to tell.  In Long Sun and Short Sun, he is a little freer to insert Christian symbology, and he doesn’t hesitate to do so, with several rather direct references identifying the Outsider with the God of Christianity.  
Which is not to say that all dogmas associated with the Outsider, if indeed there are such dogmas, would necessarily be agreeable to the Vatican of the Dawn Men.  Our views of the Divine will continue to evolve, just as (in much of the world anyway) they evolved from pagan conceptions to Christianity.
- Gerry Quinn


 
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