{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2461",
    "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": 2461,
    "subject": "Peace redemption, little bit on New Sun and false family (long)",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-11-13T21:36:54+00:00",
    "last": "2000-11-13T21:36:54+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0118@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Marc A Aramini",
        "address": "maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu"
      },
      "date": "2000-11-13T21:36:54+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Peace redemption, little bit on New Sun and false family (long)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I have always read the final lines of the text of Peace as a redemptive\npurification, a return to the \"brand new\" state of the ax which is so\noriginally used as a metaphor for purity in the opening sections of\nPeace.  The apples which incite A.D. Weer (or, as I like to think of\nhim, \"man after Christ\" which is a possible reading of his name) to kill\nBobby Black due to their assault against his dead ancestor's picture\nalso signify the fall from grace which begins the biblical comedy of\nman.  The sidhe receive eternal life only through Jesus Christ in the\nfinal story of the book, and the tale of the green pillow which is\nmetafictionally marked as \"important\" before its relation in the book\nimplies a return to the brand new state of the unbloodied ax, and while\nWeer cannot relive his life from a theologically sound Catholic\ninterpretation, the spiritual power lurking behind Peace may be\nsufficient to make those marks on his soul as if they had never were in\nthe first place.  I really like to read those lines as the hopes not\nonly of the resurrection of the body, but as the inevitability of a\nspiritual and metaphysical purging of Weer's stained soul,  perhaps a\nheretical return to the divine logos.\n\nAlso, I have been interested in the doubling of Severian's family in the\nBook of the New Sun.  Mr. Borski kindly corresponded with me about one\nof my previous theories that Pia was in fact Severian's sister, but he\ncited several flaws in my theory, mainly dealing with the positioning of\nthe river in respect to Nessus.  His insight was invaluable.  Pia cannot\nmove upstream, so Severian had to move downstream for my theory to hold\nany water.  I have reread the text since then, and I find it odd that in\nfact there are two possibilities for Severian's family tree, a shadow of\nthe rampant myths that Panteras the roman soldier actually impregnated\nMary and begot Jesus, who covered her pregnancy with her marriage to\nJoseph.  These secular tales of Christ are of course only bawdy tales,\nbut they are commonly known.  \nAt the end of Citadel of the Autarch, Severian speaks with the\nMandragora.  The oddest part of the conversation is the question: do you\nremember being in the basket as a child.  Severian replies that he does\nremember being in the basket.  Well well well.  From the story of Fish\nand Frog in Sword of the Lictor, we have the twins going downstream in a\nbasket, reenacting Moses' little journey.  We also have Cyriaca\nspeculating \"I could be your mother.\" during their tryst at the\nbegininning of The Sword of the Lictor, and the possibility that\nSeverian floats downstream from the river to Nessus in a basket, perhaps\nbegotten by Paleamon on his exile, or recovered by him (I'm still not\ncertain of the timeline which definitively places the exile of the\nMaster Torturer).  Here we have a \"false family\" for Severian, Pia as\nsister, Severian as brother floating downstream to Nessus, perhaps\nCyriaca as mother, a shadow family in addition to the dubious Merryn as\nsister, Dorcas as grandmother, Ouen as father, Katherine as mother.  \nAnd here we come to the concept of free will: Wolfe knows that in order\nfor creation to be justified there must be enough evil to permit real\nfree will.  Indeed, the height of free will lies in choosing what\nstories to believe.  The secular historian may choose to believe that\nPanteras and Mary slept together, the man of faith my choose to believe\nthat Jesus had more divine origins.  In any case, reflected in the text\nwe find an expression of free will:  we can choose which family and\nwhich fate to ascribe to Severian, who foolishly believes in the\nperspicuity and one to one relationship of words to ideas when even the\nname of his world holds multiple meanings.\n\tSeveral other technical features of The Book of the New Sun are simply\nastounding.  Every descriptive metaphor and simile remains heliocentric,\nthe sun stays stationary while the tides and the earth rise to meet it. \nThe preponderance of flood imagery in the descriptions are also\namazing:  they foreshadow the subsequent flooding of the earth countless\ntimes during the text, when Severian feels as if he is going to float up\ninto the sky, as into a waterway.  This imagery is especially thick in\nThe Claw of the Conciliator and The Sword of the Lictor.  Another of my\nfavorite aspects of the text lies in its beautiful juxtaposition of\nwater imagery, the loss of Terminus Est, and the inexplicably\nmiraculous:  Severian loses his Sword in the water where he then\nresurrects dorcas; he drops his sword in the water at Saltus where he\nthen heals the man-ape; his Sword causes him to stumble several times as\nhe releases the floodgates at the opening of The Sword of the Lictor\nwhen he flees the city, then his claw heals the prisoners (that passage\nis especially full of resurrection and miracle imagery);  on Mt. Typhoon\nhe almost drops his sword while looking out on a sky that seems like a\nhuge expanse of ocean (he uses his sword, planted in the ground as a\ncross, to climb out of the hand of typhoon after little Severian dies\nand he cannot raise him).  finally, he returns Terminus Est, the cross,\nto the water of Lake Diuturna at the end of The Sword of the Lictor. \nAll of this prefigures the flood at the end of Urth of the New Sun, the\nconsequence of his new sun.  Incidentally, I am aware that many people\nhave compared the Book of the New Sun to Remembrance of Things Past, and\nthe most striking similarity is the evoking of involuntary memory\nthrough food:  Marcel gains his memory back from eating a Madelaine with\nTea, Severian gains the memory of others from eating various brains with\nalzabo analeptic.  How fascinating.  I am sure much of this is old news,\nbut I find these little unifying details truly fascinating, and I wanted\nto share some of my thoughts with those who truly appreciate the\ncreative artistry and aesthetic craftsmanship of Wolfe.\n\nMarc Aramini"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}