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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I think you are reading for too negative a meaning
into certain things. For a start, the New Sun is welcome despite the
destruction, which is predicted in advance by various people; it means
continuing life on Urth, rather than a slow dying over a few thousand years
(Master Ash's future). He brings not Peace, but a Sword, you might
say.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>What coming of Christ does Sev ward off? No
Christ is coming to the moribund Urth we meet at the beginning of the
story.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>- Gerry Quinn</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=thalassocrat08@gmail.com href="mailto:thalassocrat08@gmail.com">Mr
Thalassocrat</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><BR>There, at the end you have it. He has a
happy obedience without the least<BR>tincture of rebellion. He has been put
through his tests, and now he is<BR>taking up the mantle.<BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>The most interesting question for me is whether this unquestioning
acceptance is supposed to be a *good* thing.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> The Claw is only special because it has been soaked in Sev's blood,
while he was on the Ship (or at least that's what
giant-moth-woman-Morlock-bureaucrat Apheta tells him in UOTNS). The religion
of the New Sun only exists because of Sev's actions in "the past". When he
prays at the altar of the Pelerines in the lazarette, he finds that he is
praying to himself. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If you can import a notion from Long Sun/Short Sun, Sev's
strivings lead only back to himself, not outside, to the "Outsider".</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And contrast Silk and SilkHorn's enlightenment and experience of the
presence of God, with the thoughtless, formless, fundamentally
non-intellectual nature of Sev's experience in this quote. Personally, I don't
think Wolfe has any time for this kind of mystical experience, separated from
the intellect. I read Pirate Freedom as a critique of it - the
worthlessness of feeling all holy when it's separated from the conscious will
to actually do good stuff. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sev, the avatar of *his* religion, of course ends up responsible for
the death of most of the people of Urth, without really thinking
about what he's actually doing or having clear sense of
why. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When you first read New Sun, and see the strange parallels between the
life of Christ and Sev's life, it's natural to wonder if it isn't all a little
blasphemous, coming from a Christian writer. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think the answer is that Sev's career is indeed a kind of blasphemy. He
says to Aphata that he is worried that the Hieros are like the magicians,
promising wonders & delivering evil. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think Sev for them serves much the same purpose as the mutilated cock
he & little Sev find, before they encounter the magicians. The cock is a
piece of apotropaic magic to ward off the coming of the New Sun. I think the
Hieros have moulded Sev as a tool to ward off the coming of Christ, in some
sense.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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