Gene Wolfe seems to walk with a cane. Silk is limping through much of the Long Sun, and the Rajan has his strange staff in the Short Sun.<div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 4:17 PM, James B. Jordan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jbjordan4@cox.net">jbjordan4@cox.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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<font size="3">IIRC it's also in The Hero as Werewolf.<br><br>
JBJordan<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br>
At 03:07 PM 6/15/2011, you wrote:<br>
</div></div></font><blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size="2">In a message dated 6/15/2011 2:41:10
P.M. Central Daylight Time, <a href="mailto:kierkegaurdian@gmail.com" target="_blank">kierkegaurdian@gmail.com</a> writes:<br>
<br>
> I just finished Peace (which was absolutely wonderful) and<br>
> am now reading the last half of The Book of the Long Sun.<br>
> I noticed when reading Peace, one short sentence in which<br>
> the narrator references his bad leg, which is dragging<br>
> behind him. Of course, Severian is famously lame, and<br>
> for the larger portion of Long Sun, Patera Silk has a<br>
> wounded leg that is mentioned several times. I was<br>
> wondering what people thought the significance is, and<br>
> if there were other protagonists in Wolfe novels who<br>
> are lame.<br>
<br>
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." <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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?)<br>
<br>
John<br>
<br>
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<p>
James B. Jordan<font color="#888888"><br>
Director, Biblical Horizons<br>
Box 1096<br>
Niceville, FL 32588<br>
<a href="http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com</a></font></p></div>
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