<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Remember that Wolfe uses narrators to tell his story -- unreliable ones. Anything written in the narrative voice should be taken to be the thought of the narrator, not necessarily Wolfe himself. That, and Catholicism isn't necessarily a monolithic edifice of thought. I can certainly see where various philosophical and theological schools influence the "mythology" of Wolfe's works, as it were. I don't think Wolfe intends to endorse these as a proper system of belief so much as he uses them to make his works interesting and meaningful.<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Lane</div><div><br><div><div>On Jan 8, 2008, at 11:47 AM, Steven wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "> <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I've just started Pirate Freedom and have been having similar, though more confused thoughts about GW's 'real' religious thought. It's hard for me to square a number of items in his many books with his professed Catholicism. Normally, I'd just say: Well, the author is a fantasist and has a writing persona and then, separately, there's his real life feelings. But GW seems to purposefully entwine the two and it makes me wonder at the value he places on belief. Or am I just a dupe, falling for the seeming veritas of his writing?<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Any thoughts? I'm a Spinozist myself and have no ax to grind in the dogma wars.<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><br><div><div>On Jan 8, 2008, at 1:37 AM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Georgia" size="5" style="font: 16.0px Georgia"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If Wolfe's work is any indicator of his</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Georgia" size="5" style="font: 16.0px Georgia">religious leanings, he seems to regard the concept of religious sacrifice in</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Georgia" size="5" style="font: 16.0px Georgia">a favorable light.</font></div> </blockquote></div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div>Steven</div><div><a href="http://bowenfineart.com">http://bowenfineart.com</a>/</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span></span> </div><br></div>_______________________________________________<br>Urth Mailing List<br>To post, write <a href="mailto:urth@urth.net">urth@urth.net</a><br>Subscription/information: <a href="http://www.urth.net">http://www.urth.net</a></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>