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<DIV>In a message dated 6/15/2011 2:41:10 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
kierkegaurdian@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
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<DIV>> <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I just finished Peace (which was absolutely wonderful) and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> am now reading the last half of The Book of the Long
Sun.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> I noticed when reading Peace, one short sentence in
which</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> the narrator references his bad leg, which is
dragging</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> behind him. Of course, Severian is famously lame,
and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> for the larger portion of Long Sun, Patera Silk has
a</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> wounded leg that is mentioned several times. I
was</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> wondering what people thought the significance is,
and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> if there were other protagonists in Wolfe novels
who</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>> are lame.</FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>My guess, without looking at it closely, would be that Wolfe might have
Genesis 3 in mind. In God's curse on the serpent, we read that he will
impose enmity between the serpent and the woman and between the serpent's seed
(offspring) and the woman's seed (offspring), an enmity which will culminate
this way: "He will bruise/crush your head and you will bruise/crush his
heel." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>That verse is often called the protoevangelium, because it is seen by
Christians as referring to Jesus' death on the cross, whereby he also crushed
the head of the serpent (Satan). The cross is the crushing/bruising of
Jesus' heel, the serpent's strike at Jesus, which results in Jesus' death ...
but that death isn't final, and in the serpent's striking at Jesus, the serpent
ends up with his own head crushed. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Moreover, Paul applies that promise to the whole church in Romans 16 when
he promises the church in Rome that "the God of peace will crush Satan under
your feet shortly." So it is not just that Jesus crushes the serpent's
head. It is also that God crushes the serpent (Satan) under the feet of
the church. And if that's the case, then it's not surprising that in
crushing the serpent, the church also sustains a foot wound.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>So perhaps there's some connection between the lameness of these
characters and the promise in Genesis 3. But I wonder if there isn't
perhaps also a connection with the Jacob narrative: When Jacob wrestles the
Angel, who turns out to be YHWH himself, he learns that all of his wrestling
with man throughout his life (Isaac, Esau, Laban) has actually been wrestling
with God ... and that in that wrestling, far from losing, he has actually been
winning. Now, wrestling with the Angel, he is winning again. But the
Angel simply touches Jacob's hip and the result is that Jacob limps for the rest
of his life. That limp, though a weakness, is not a sign of his loss but
of his victory. He is now Israel, the one who wrestles with God and
prevails. And maybe these Wolfean characters are to be viewed as Jacobs,
as those who are wrestling with God.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'll let others carry these thoughts further if they wish. (By the
way, this sort of imagery is also present, even more strongly, in the works of
Tim Powers. How many of Powers' characters are wounded in their heads,
hands, and feet in the course of the story?)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>John<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></DIV></FONT>
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