Subject: (urth) Wolfe RPG

From: Joel Priddy <jpriddy at saturn.vcu.edu>
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 14:30:28 +0000

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

mantis say: 
>Finally, this annecdote: when Neil Gaiman heard about the
project he
said (words to this effect), "How neat--a game where everybody
tries to
figure out who his own mother is." <g>

Literally, LOL. What if all the player characters turn out to be
time duplicates of each other? That's gotta screw up character
points...
I'm gonna hold off on signing up as an IO member in order to
download the playtest version of GURPS New Sun, however. (1) I'm
not sure I'm mentally and emotionally prepared to start spending
money on RPGs again. (2) I just got my copy of the Lexicon, which
should hold me for awhile.
And speaking of the Lexicon... What a groovy book! A nicely
designed cover, to boot (it looks a lot nicer than the New Sun
paperbacks, the covers of which I, frankly, find a little
embarrassing). I can't wait to read the Book again, looking up
every third word. And once I do, boy, will I start to nitpick each
little detail until this mailing list is bursting with my
ingorant obsessings.
  Here's one to start myself off on... Flipping through the
Lexicon randomly, I came across a couple Ushas-related passages
where mantis talks about Sleeper-Severian waking up the other
gods, and these four gods forming a strong base in the brave new
world. What is this based on? The only place I can possibly
imagine any evidence of this coming from is the Green Man,
although I don't specifically remember that happening (not that that means
a thing. Severian I ain't). This is an idea that appeals, and
makes plenty of mythopoetic sense, but didn't present itself to
me as the definite ending of _Urth_.
  And speaking of the Green Man, in the Lexicon mantis says that
his symbiotic bacteria attests to his peace with Fauna. This
reminds me of a Blake quote along the lines of getting past the
vegetable world before you can see the domes and spires of
Golgonotha(?). "Vegetable" referring to gross matter in this
instance, and the city of Golgonotha being a higher spiritual
state.
  I think about Blake a lot when reading Wolfe, but I don't think
I've seen his name show up here yet. Wolfe's
religious beliefs seem very Blakean to me, if I'm reading them correctly.
Seeing the cycle of Christ occuring in each
individual, the Final Judgement happening on a personal level,
the need to create  seemingly pagan pantheons in order to illustrate 
Christian thought...
  I'm no Blake scholar and am in no position to make my case
clearly, but has anyone else drawn a connection? If not, I'll do
my reading and try to restate this more cogently.
 How about you,alga? It was that gorgeous Blake print on th cover
that made me notice your History in the first place.

-cephalothorax-