3 quoted lines
BSharp wrote:
I don't want to try to answer questions on the cabala. I never knew a great deal about it and I >have forgotten most of what I knew. I have the great disadvantage of not believing in it and so I >can't get so caught up in it as cabalist really do. To me it was someplace that I could steal ideas >and names from.
I noticed this quote a while back and have, thererfore, avoided looking too deeply into Kabbalah concepts to explain BotNS and am a bit skeptical regarding those who do. There is another, non-cosmological, Kabbalistic theme Wolfe borrows which I haven't seen mentioned by any critical review, that being the Lilith myth. I think I hinted at that a month or two ago but I'm not sure. I'll try to discuss it if I can gel my ideas and if there is any interest.
If there's one thing I've learnt from reading Gene Wolfe it is to never trust the author or anything he says....
But I think GW is being disingenuous here because he borrowed the Kabbalah much as other writers might borrow from Tolkien - not as something he believes in, but something that worked well in the story.
J
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