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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">For those also posting over on the Gene Wolfe Book Club I have just posted something similar there but in brief,</FONT>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I wonder if Severian is not so much Christ as Saul (Paul of Tarsus)?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Paul violently persecuted the followers of Jesus after all (could you say tortured them?) and then discovered Jesus/God and underwent a conversion.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In Severian's case there is no dramatic conversion but a gradual awakening to a new moral code (as exemplified by his disbanding his own guild at the end of the series).</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Having said that, I could never claim to be well versed in the Bible or Catholic teachings so I could be way off on this...</FONT></P>
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