(urth) Lupiverse(es)

[James Wynn]

On 3/14/2012 10:10 AM, Craig Brewer wrote:
> I'm not saying you can't still draw "spiritual" conclusions about all 
> of this. But they're going to be more indirect, I think, than "this is 
> Wolfe's final theological statement on X." For example: Urth 
> continues, and it's a better place, but it's not a perfect "Christian" 
> world, right?

I think it is a big mistake to read Wolfe as one would read Chesterton 
or Lewis. He's not primarily "justifying God's ways to man". Nor is he 
primarily demonstrating the moral & practical primacy of classical 
liberalism. There is some of that in there, but --although I vocally 
detect a lot of things going on in his novels-- I don't detect that he 
feels bound to any theological historicity. If I believed that, then I 
would conclude that Wolfe has strong secret gnostic leanings. And I 
don't.  Briah is far more gnostic than Christian. Gnosticism absorbed 
elements of Christianity just as it did everything else so you're going 
to see Christian elements in any gnostic world. It is not for nothing 
that Severian is named after a gnostic Christian sect.

Wolfe has said that he doesn't feel an especial need to express his 
faith in his writings (citing Orson Scott Card as a counter-example). 
Trying to detect his theological beliefs from the setting or final 
resolution of Urth strikes me as folly.

The New Sun can be most naturally read as being in our future. The 
universe iterations allow you to elide that if you want to. But one 
should not carry it to the next level and speculate on the theological 
implications of the expanding/collapsing universes.

J

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