Subject: (urth) urth Digest, Vol 23, Issue 10

From: Jonathan Laidlow <ultan01 at yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:19:21 +0000

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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