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<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 5:54 PM, Gerry Quinn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gerryq@indigo.ie">gerryq@indigo.ie</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div> </div>I remain 'loyal to the ship' on this one. One can certainly question whether the negation of a black hole that was deliberately put into the sun counts as a net benefit - but can we really defend the moribund future of Master Ash compared to the new life of Ushas, though indeed this new life must be born in cataclysm?</font></div>
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<div>But on my side of the argument I have Ash's words about the majority of the population having been evacuated before the ice death, in his future. Whatever the benefits of Ushas, why did almost everybody have to die in Sev's time line? And probably more to the point: why didn't Sev at least try to make this happen - knowing as he did that it was possible?</div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">It would, I think, be unfair to rely too much on the author's statements on his intention, but it seems to me that they support the conventional interpretation. Severian is 'a Christian figure' - compare to Silk, who is 'a good man in a bad religion'.</font></div>
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<div>I can't recall everything that Wolfe has said about this, but didn't he actually say that Sev is a member of the mystical body of Christ? (Or was that something that he said to somebody, in addition to the Sev-as-Christian comment?) Anyway, I can't understand Sev being a Christian, which presumably requires one to believe in Christ? </div>
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<div>As to being part of the mystical body of Christ, I am totally unqualified to judge what that actually means. But perhaps this sentence from the Mystici Corporis Christi is relevant: "For the Church, the Bride of Christ, is one; and yet so vast is the love of the divine Spouse that it embraces in His Bride the whole human race without exception." (<a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi_en.html">http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi_en.html</a> Ch96)</div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">But here is an obvious question which should have an answer within the text: if your theory is correct, where in BotNS/UotNS is the counterpart of The Outsider? And what Urthly presences/powers stand against the New Sun? Vodalus? Who, Mr. Thallassocrat, is standing for what you say is Good?</font></div>
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<div>That is indeed the big question. My answer is that LS/SS is a redemption of the God-less world of BOTNS/UOTNS - in which neither side is "Good". I believe Sev's life after meeting SilkHorn will be very different than his career in BOTNS/UOTNS - as I've set out in posts here over the years. I don't think anybody else has found this position very convincing, but I'm sticking with it :)</div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">- Gerry Quinn</font></div>
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