(urth) Oannes

[David Stockhoff]

On 3/20/2012 9:36 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> *From:* Lee Berman <mailto:severiansola at hotmail.com>
> > 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.

I agree. I don't see how an evolving deity could be anything but an 
evolving perception of that deity. Plainly, that has always fascinated 
Wolfe.