Subject: (urth) Returns

From: Joel Priddy <jpriddy at saturn.vcu.edu>
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 22:43:44 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

It's been what, four months since I was last on this list? MOved
to the Big City and haven't made arrangements for reliable access
in my new digs. Since then I've picked up the Dr. Island book and
treated myself to the new editions of TBONS. This is the first
time I've read it with the Lexicon sitting next to me. Hugely
informative, of course, as has been all the exposure to the ideas
on this list.
I've been
reading with special attention to the whole question of whether
Severien's Christianity is metaphorical or literal, or just what
is the nature of religion in the Coomonwealth in general. Anybody up for
reopening that can of worms? Also dug up The Best of Cordwainer
Smith on the general recommendations of this list.
Anyway, the point is that I have access for at least the next
week or so, and thought I'd dip my boots into the old stomping
grounds.

cephalothorax

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.geis.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 1997 00:23:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #3792019 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET#

cephalothorax,

Hey there, hi there.

Re: religion in the Commonwealth and/or TBOTNS.  Sure, go
ahead--document for us your interpretation and/or spin!  Granted that
probably no one will agree with you entirely, and possibly no one will
agree with you at all, but still, the quest for self-expression is
the thing in and of itself.  (Like the Book of Mirrors . . . this is
no map, this is the thing itself.)

Today the Conciliator seems to me to be rather a lot like John the
Baptist, with his speech about, "Don't worry what happens to me--the
=next= guy who comes will be the New Sun."  And, of course, there
are (were) heresies that consider(ed) John the Baptist to be the true
Messiah, etc.  Not to cloud the issue.  But there are so many
heretical notions--so many substitutions on the cross of the ship
Tzadkiel (double-cross, triple-cross), so many indications that
everything is just for show (ala THE PASSOVER PLOT, et al.), that all
fights are rigged (the winner has been chosen ahead of time), that
all judicial trials are shams (the case has already been decided
ahead of time), and so on, that I begin to wonder if this is part of
the point: not the gnostic route that Peter Wright more-or-less
describes (using most of the items I've just listed), but instead a
sort of "compilation of worst case scenarios" that begins with the
outrageous notion of Jesus being a torturer (making a whip and a
cross, we are told in the Bible according to Wolfe) and then piling
on every juicy heresy that can be shoehorned in.  Including issues of
a twin, etc.  To what end?  As if to say, "With all this working
against him, the guy can =still= be Christian."

Meanwhile I've just received a note from Polly Morris of San Diego
area.  She asks,

"Is it possible to include more timeline tables for the `torturer'
series?  And a map of the ship's journey in URTH OF THE NEW SUN?  I
simply can't understand the path of the ship.  Not enough astronomy
in my background I guess.  I know Wolfe is writing sci-fi not fantasy,
but I just can't understand the thrust of the narrative. I love the
book, though."

I don't quite understand the first request--does she want more
details added into the existing framework?  Probably!  Or does she
just want text citations?  Not unreasonable!  (I'll just ask
her.)  Well, who doesn't?!  Then again there probably is some stuff
I've already worked out, notes gathering dust somewhere around here:
time of androsphinxes, eidolon guardians, details of the
Conciliator's brief visit to Urth . . .

A map of the starship's journey, now =that= would really be something!
I should put in all the notes I've got on that.  Diagram of Briah and
Yesod as being two conveyer belts moving in opposite directions . . .
All in all, more stuff for the delayed "Additions, Errata, &cetera:
Volume 3."

=mantis=