Subject: (urth) Religion in the BotNS

From: C R Culver <crculver at aol.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 03:16:31 +0000

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

Said Peter S:
>The part where he goes through Thrax holding the Claw aloft recalls `I am the
light of the world'<

This section is hard for me to interpret religiously, because Severian does
release the floodgates, killing the prisoners in the jacal. That is, IMHO, not
in any way Christlike.

Continues Peter:
>I'm sure there must be other such.  I hope someone can wax lyrical on the
relationship of the Pancreator, Increate<

I notice 'Pancreator' is used historically, in God's role as Creator, and
Increate is used in the present, explaining a God who watches, remotely,
though.

One interesting thing I did notice is Severian's reviving of Miles. The word
Miles is Latin for soldier (actually, it is nominative or accusative plural),
but it also can mean "thousand." How many people are in a Roman legion? A
thousand, or some variation of it? Thus, Severian was able to revive Jonas,
but casting out his demons (that is, his personal demons, or his pain over not
having Jolenta), just as Christ, in Luke, drove the demons out of the man who
identified himself as Legion. I'm pretty much thinking out loud right now, so
don't take this too seriously.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html
------------------------------------------------
"Ignorance, that light of fools steers a wayward path"
-Brendan Perry

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Peter Stephenson <pws at ifh.de>
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 09:08:52 +0000

C R Culver wrote:
> Said Peter S:
> >The part where he goes through Thrax holding the Claw aloft recalls
> > `I am the light of the world'<
> 
> release the floodgates, killing the prisoners in the jacal. That is,
> IMHO, not in any way Christlike.

Even if this isn't what happens in this particular episode, it's
certainly striking how quickly Severian `falls off' in any episode
where he is somehow fleetingly put up against Christ...  In the first
example I hazarded, which looked a bit like Christ before Pilate, the
chapter ends with Severian demonstrating his torturing skills on one
of the soldiers (at the lochage's suggestion, it should be said).  In
the last, he ends up by killing Typhon/Piaton (though if he's somehow
the Devil in this episode then my weak theology has run out of
exegetic steam).  These sort of references seem like little pieces in
a mosaic, which is a suitably Byzantine image.

(Which reminds me I've been meaning to ask about some possible
relationships between Wolfe and Yeats...)

Peter