{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1618", "note": "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.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 1618, "subject": "Earth to Urth Pt 1: Grace and Works", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "1999-05-06T19:59:17+00:00", "last": "1999-05-06T19:59:17+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Nigel Price", "address": "nigelprice1 at compuserve.com" }, "date": "1999-05-06T19:59:17+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Earth to Urth Pt 1: Grace and Works", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Having accidentally achieved notoriety through featuring in the subject\nheading of one of Jonathan Laidlow's more controversial recent postings to\nthis list, I thought that I would make a fool of myself in my own right\nthis time and submit some of the random thoughts that I have been jotting\ndown and sending to the aforementioned Jonathan over the last few days when\nboth of us should probably have been busy doing something else...\n\n --0-0--\n\n* Grace and Works *\n\nI think that the tension between grace and works has been a key issue for\nWolfe, who has said in a number of interviews that the trouble with the\npeople of Urth is that they have stopped striving and exploring, and are\njust sitting back on their laurels. The theme is there very strongly in\n\"Operation Ares\", which was his first book, and keeps on resurfacing\nthroughout his work. In \"Ares\", the United States has turned its back on\nscience in general and the space race in particular and, as a result, has\nbegun to slip into economic and technological decay. The presence of\nuncontrolled packs of imported African animals wandering America seems to\nbe his metaphor for an inverted social and technological order, and I'm not\nsure that the imported alien animals of Urth don't have a similar symbolic\nfunction.\n\nThe relationship between \"grace\" and \"works\" is one of the key debates in\nthe apostolic letters in the New Testament, and subtle (and not so subtle)\ndifferences of emphasis and interpretation on this issue have historically\nbeen part of the theological differences between Catholic and Protestant\ntheology. Leaving such subtleties aside for the moment, the doctrine of\ngrace states that there is nothing anyone can do to deserve God's favour. \nIt is a free gift, given out of love to those that will accept it, and\ncannot ever be earned. The doctrine of works, on the other hand, stresses\nthat anyone who has received God's favour ought to be so grateful that they\nshould live the sort of loving and caring lives that show they are\nfollowing God's/Christ's example.\n\nAs a practical, working man, and an engineer at that, Wolfe seems highly\nwary of any doctrine of grace that leaves works out of the question and\nimplies that it's enough just to sit back and receive. Clearly this\nattitude goes hand in hand with his Catholic faith, that demands some sort\nof energetic response, whilst at the same time emphasising the vast gap\nbetween Creator and creature, and the latter's inability to fully\nunderstand the former, let alone do anything to please him.\n\nSeen from this perspective, the story of \"Kevin Malone\" starts off as a\nsort of oblique allegory of grace, in which the handsome young couple\nreceive a lovely house and a luxurious life style simply as a free gift\nfrom an unknown benefactor. When, instead of appreciating their good\nfortune, they become indolent, bitchy and potentially violent, the tables\nare turned and they are thrown out and possibly sentenced, in the wife's\ncase, to become the victim of a ghostly repetition of an earlier murder. \nNow, I'm not saying that that's all that's going on in \"Kevin Malone\", but\nit does seem to be at least part of the picture. The fact that Kevin\nbecomes their judge and possibly executioner rather than their benefactor,\nwhilst a perfectly spooky and surprising transformation, may also fulfil\nsome perception Wolfe has about the way that divine justice works. Nothing\never maps one to one with Wolfe, but I do wonder whether he is not toying\nin some way with Christ's role as both saviour and judge, as described in\nJohn's gospel, where Jesus explains that in one sense he does not have to\njudge because those who reject him have essentially chosen their own\njudgement.\n\n(Sorry that this is inevitably more theological than some of my other\nLupine theories...)\n\nThe application to Urth would be that the population have accepted grace\nwithout gratitude, and have thus brought judgement on themselves. If this\nis the case, then I would see the primary scriptural template for their\nexperience being the parable of the talents. They had the talents, but\nfailed to put them to any use, and were thus condemned when the accounts\nwere audited.\n\nOr something like that.\n\n --0-0--\n\nFootnote: \n\nAs I explained to the unfortunate Mr Laidlow in a recent and astonishingly\ndull video that I sent him, Wolfe seems to be playing an interesting\ntheological word game in \"Kevin Malone\" that involves what I've heard\ndescribed as \"para-punning\". The game, if I've understood it correctly, is\nto deploy the two different meanings of a word in a story without ever\nactually using the word itself. You just imply it as a tacit form of word\nplay.\n\nThe two examples that I think I've spotted in \"Kevin Malone\" surround the\nwords \"grace\" and \"fall\". I'm positive of the latter, fairly sure of the\nformer.\n\nIn everyday usage, \"grace\" refers to the pleasing and stylish performance\nof a task or action. Theologically, as pedantically described above, it\nrefers to God's unmeritted favour towards humanity.\n\nThe advertisement that the narrator answers at the beginning of the story\nappeals for an \"Attractive young couple, well educated and well\nconnected...\" This seems to evoke the ordinary, secular meaning of\n\"grace\". The handsome young couple, especially once they are ensconced in\nluxury at The Pines, certainly exhibit style and, thus, \"grace\".\n\nBut the generous free provision of a mansion, servants, and even a daily\ncash allowance (an important, gratuitous detail), surely is meant to evoke,\nin some symbollic fashion, the theological meaning of \"grace\". The young\ncouple are recipients of a sort of theological grace, but their response is\nlimited to the display of a purely secular grace. They are curious as to\ntheir benefactor's identity, but certainly not generous in spirit, as their\nspiteful treatment of Priest the butler shows.\n\nSo... \"Grace\" is never mentioned, but is nevertheless evoked in both its\ncontrary meanings. That's the theory, anyway.\n\nThe second example of \"para-punning\" is one I'm absolutely sure of. The\nyoung couple lose their place at The Pines at a very specific time of year:\n\"The poplars lost their leaves in one October week...\"\n\nIn other words, their fall from grace actually takes place in the fall. In\nAmerican usage, the season the British refer to as autumn is known as\n\"fall\". But, theologically, \"the Fall\" refers to Adam and Eve's sin, their\npunishment by God and expulsion from the garden of Eden. It's the fall\nseason, and the young couple endure a sort of symbolic \"Fall\".\n\nNigel Price\nMinety, Wiltshire\n\n\"Carry On Torturer\": Jim Dale IS Severian!" } ] } ] }