(urth) The Wizard
Lee Berman
severiansola at hotmail.com
Mon Mar 5 19:01:40 PST 2012
>Dan'l Danehey-Oakes: Not to agree with Gerry or anything, but clearly the Christian
>allusions are primary.
Perhaps we can all agree that what we see as "primary" might say more about who we are
than what is clear in the books. Allusions to pagan mythology and Christianity are
both there. So which is more important?
The pagan and gnostic references do seem more primary to me. As I see it, the references
to Christianity are about the trappings of the church, not Christ himself. There are
roods and gammdions and signs of addition. There are various forms of the eucharist and
sermons and confessions and so on.
There is even a guy who resembles Jesus. But I see no Christ. I see no christian salvation
offered by anyone; not Severian, not Silk, not SilkHorn, not even The Outsider. All these
guys seem to offer is material salvation not spiritual. Salvation means surviving. Moving
to a different planet or having your planet reformed or something like that
And that is the differece between, say, Moses and Jesus Christ. And perhaps the difference
between the brutal Old Testament demiurge and the forgiving New Testament God. Moses led
the chosen to a Promised Land. Christ led (and leads) to an entirely new plane of existence.
Wolfe talks about the Sun Series taking place in an alternate universe than our own and I
think this is the reason he needed that device. He could not build a futuristic gnostic
monster and horror filled world in a universe where Jesus Christ has already appeared.
Once Christ has been here, that's it. Christian salvation becomes an option. An option
seemingly unavailable to anyone in Briah.
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