# Mani and Thor *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 15 Oct 1998* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Peter T. Cash *15 Oct 1998, 23:22* alga said: > But yes, with reservations about Erebus, Abaia & co., who are echoing the > more dualist parts of Revelation. I said that Dr. Talos's play is > Manichaean. Which it certainly is--the gothic tradition to which > Baldanders, > Talos and all horror novelists belong is necessarily dualistic. "Privatio boni" won't do for Gothic novels? _Necessarily_ dualistic? Umm...well you are a micro-organism of definite opinions, so I'll just gently suggest that I'm not convinced. When you say that the play is "Manichaean", I take it that you mean it implies a dualistic cosmology or theology. I suppose that it does; but then it implies lots of things. Indeed, the play struck me as a somewhat tacky, improvised kitchen-sink composite of just about every apocalyptic-second creation myth that I'd ever heard. (I'm surprised the Aesir don't put in an appearance.) I suppose this is in keeping with a play-within-a-novel that is a "grand sword 'n sorcery revision of the New Testament". I really like that assessment, by the way. Sgt. Rock --- ### Alex David Groce *16 Oct 1998, 12:48 · follows Peter T. Cash* Necessarily seems a bit much to me, as well. Maybe necessarily somewhat suggestive of dualism... Come to think of it, Lovecraft isn't dualistic--there's only a dark side... > On Oct 15, 11:22pm, Peter T. Cash wrote: > Subject: (urth) Mani and Thor > alga said: >> But yes, with reservations about Erebus, Abaia & co., who are echoing the >> more dualist parts of Revelation. I said that Dr. Talos's play is >> Manichaean. Which it certainly is--the gothic tradition to which >> Baldanders, >> Talos and all horror novelists belong is necessarily dualistic. > "Privatio boni" won't do for Gothic novels? _Necessarily_ dualistic? > Umm...well you are a micro-organism of definite opinions, so I'll just > gently suggest that I'm not convinced. > > When you say that the play is "Manichaean", I take it that you mean it > implies a dualistic cosmology or theology. I suppose that it does; but then > it implies lots of things. Indeed, the play struck me as a somewhat tacky, > improvised kitchen-sink composite of just about every apocalyptic-second > creation myth that I'd ever heard. (I'm surprised the Aesir don't put in an > appearance.) I suppose this is in keeping with a play-within-a-novel that is > a "grand sword 'n sorcery revision of the New Testament". I really like that > assessment, by the way. > > Sgt. Rock ---