<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div><span>I agree. Though there are certainly some elements</span><span>---such as the idea of incremental moral progress itself---</span><span>that beg for this kind of analysis.</span></div><div><br><span></span></div><div><span>Anyway, even if Urth is in our past, Severian's natal period is plainly in the future of that past. So I think your observation can be satisfied while still allowing the Urth-is-past theory.<br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> James Wynn <crushtv@gmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> The Urth Mailing List
<urth@lists.urth.net> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, March 14, 2012 12:42 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: (urth) Lupiverse(es)<br> </font> </div> <br><div id="yiv178025130">
<div>
On 3/14/2012 10:10 AM, Craig Brewer wrote:
<blockquote type="cite">
<div style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);background-color:rgb(255, 255,
255);font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;">I'm not saying you can't still draw
"spiritual" conclusions about all of this. But they're going to
be more indirect, I think, than "this is Wolfe's final
theological statement on X." For example: Urth continues, and
it's a better place, but it's not a perfect "Christian" world,
right? </div>
</blockquote>
<br>
I think it is a big mistake to read Wolfe as one would read
Chesterton or Lewis. He's not primarily "justifying God's ways to
man". Nor is he primarily demonstrating the moral & practical
primacy of classical liberalism. There is some of that in there, but
--although I vocally detect a lot of things going on in his novels--
I don't detect that he feels bound to any theological historicity.
If I believed that, then I would conclude that Wolfe has strong
secret gnostic leanings. And I don't. Briah is far more gnostic
than Christian. Gnosticism absorbed elements of Christianity just as
it did everything else so you're going to see Christian elements in
any gnostic world. It is not for nothing that Severian is named
after a gnostic Christian sect. <br>
<br>
Wolfe has said that he doesn't feel an especial need to express his
faith in his writings (citing Orson Scott Card as a
counter-example). Trying to detect his theological beliefs from the
setting or final resolution of Urth strikes me as folly.<br>
<br>
The New Sun can be most naturally read as being in our future. The
universe iterations allow you to elide that if you want to. But one
should not carry it to the next level and speculate on the
theological implications of the expanding/collapsing universes.<br>
<br>
J<br>
<br>
</div>
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