Subject: Re: (urth) The God & His Man / Authors

From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 13:29:32 +0000

mantis says:

>Speaking of authorial context, if this story was written by Michael
>Moorcock my interpretation of it would be relatively cut and dry--I have
>read enough Moorcock work that is a variation on this theme, so that I
>wouldn't give it a second thought.  Elric and Arioch, that sort of thing:
>we might call it "Elric's Revenge."  When Moorcock takes a swipe at Big
>Religion it is often targeted at Roman Catholicism, but sometimes all of
>Christianity.  The name of the god seems rather close to a swipe at the
>Jews, which seems uncharacteristic of Moorcock, so I'd transfer this to the
>early Christian church (and we're back to Catholic bashing).  (I can't
>think of a case where Moorcock writes positively about any religion.)

I tend to think of "Behold the Man" as being less anti-religious than a lot
of Moorcock that seems less directly critical of religion.  Certainly not
positive, per se, but more nuanced than a first reading indicates.  

In general, the author is alive and kicking until the day people cease to
use information about what the author has written/said/claimed to desire/etc.
in the past to help them shape their conception of anything he writes/says
afterwards.  Since we automatically do this with other people, and unless we
all become Latros are probably going to keep doing so, I suspect the author
will be in good shape for many years to come.  Certainly the "author" of
publishing/etc. is a "new" thing, and different with the changing media of
the ages (insert random mandatory Marshall McLuhan observation) but the 
creating force behind a text/story is a very old concept--it's not as if
post-Gutenberg thinkers made up Homer.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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