(urth) Lupiverse(es)

[Craig Brewer]

I think like James, apparently. I'm just generally skeptical of approaches that start by assuming what Wolfe must think and then try to find that in the text. I'd rather start with the story and stay with it. I know I just said not long ago that you have to take his Catholicism into account, but I think of it more as an intellectual and allusion-based context, rather than a program. Doesn't mean the stories can't end up saying those things, but it's a matter of how you get there, I suppose.

And, James, do you remember where he makes that Card comparison? I recall it, but can't place it.



________________________________
 From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:42 AM
Subject: Re: (urth) Lupiverse(es)m
 

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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