{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6706", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6706, "subject": "Short Stories 112-113: The Arimaspian Legacy and Slow\n Children at Play", "messages": 3, "voices": 2, "first": "2015-01-05T20:36:48+00:00", "last": "2015-01-16T00:27:46+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-01-05T20:36:48+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Stories 112-113: The Arimaspian Legacy and Slow\n Children at Play", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "THE ARIMASPIAN LEGACY AND SLOW CHILDREN AT PLAY\n\n“The Arimaspian Legacy” and “Slow Children at Play” appeared as Cheap\nStreet Chapbooks in 1987 and 1989, respectively, and are collected in\n*Starwater\nStrains* and *Innocents Aboard*.\n\n“THE ARIMASPIAN LEGACY” SUMMARY:\n\n“The Arimaspian Legacy” begins with a quote from Herodotus? *Histories*,\nindicating that tales of the one eyed men of the north (called Arimaspians)\nand their enemies, the griffins which zealously guard golden treasure from\nthem, originate with the Issedonians and have been passed on by the\nScythians.\n\nThe narrator describes his late friend David, who is survived by a few\nfamily members, and their childhood meeting at a chess club. He relates how\nthey gave each other names as children and had similarly bookish interests,\neven living close enough to visit each other via bicycles. He calls David\nby the surname Arimaspian. Their meetings often involved boasting. ?[David]\nwas exceedingly proud of whatever he possessed: his geese were every one a\nswan. The narrator also describes one of David’s possessions: the\ndubiously ebony handle of an eyeglass bearing the initials M.H., which\nDavid used to burn his own initials, D.A., into the grip of a Finnish knife.\n\nDavid became an astronomer and antiquarian book collector, though the\nnarrator is reluctant to call him a true collector because of the random\nnature of his acquisitions. He stuffed his inherited Victorian home with\nstacks of books. On the narrator’s last visit, David had to give him his\nown chair so his guest could sit in the book-crowded residence.\n\nOne night David arrives at the narrator’s house carrying a narrow carton\n“embellished with golden foil — surely the kind that distillers of the best\nclass provide at Christmas”. David says that he has fulfilled his life\nambition and found the book that “no one buys” — one that always disappears\nwhen you come back for it. He says the book was “eight hundred and\nsixty-five thousand miles across” (the diameter of the sun) but he has\nreduced it to a regular book size through translation, in a blue cover\nembellished with a golden griffin. David says that griffins are spirits\nrather than fabulous beasts and references Sumer, Akkad, and Ur, also\nindicating that he is now “potentially the master of the world.”\n\nDavid goes on to say that these Griffins, “come midwinter[,] — fly from the\nsun with new strength for the Tree,” and that the covetous Aramaspians\n(whose name means “one-eyed”) who attempt to steal their gold are half\nblinded by the sun. According to David, sunspots have spelled out a solar\ncode which he has been able to translate into Chaldean and then into\nEnglish. He claims, “Someone left it there to get us started,” and that it\nis the secret to many powers of controlling both the human body and the\nexternal world.\n\nStepping over the window ledge after indicating that a woman is waiting for\nhim below, David descends on steps of air towards a woman in a red jaguar.\nWhen he is still three stories from the ground, the sun comes out and its\nrays destroy the power of his invisible staircase; he falls to his death.\nDavid leaves his library to the narrator, who is prone to go through the\ncrates in storage “especially at this time of year.” He states, “In my\ndreams, I see him falling, and griffins bent upon vengeance, bearing the\ntreasures of the sun.” The story ends with Milton’s quote from Paradise\nLoss, which describes a “gryphon” as a Fiend pursuing the Arimaspian who\nstole its gold over any terrain by any and all means necessary.\n\n“SLOW CHILDREN AT PLAY” SUMMARY:\n\nThe narrator of “The Arimaspian Legacy”, revealed to be Gene, states that\nhe is perhaps the only one who understand how two child-like beings have\ncome to live in his building, an understanding which even these “children”\nlack. The pair, named Mark and Joe, remind Gene of the sign reading “Slow\nChildren at Play” outside his building, though Mark can be quick on\noccasion. He says they live by begging and that even simple tasks can take\nthem exorbitant amounts of time. Gene also infers that they originally came\nfrom the ruins to the south of his building and that they dwell on the\neighth floor of his apartment building, accessible only through stairs,\nbecause it was probably the only door unlocked and because the old landlord\ndid not like using the stairs (the elevator only ascends to the penultimate\nseventh floor).\n\nGene watches out for the “children” by insuring that they escape the\nattention of the caretaker of the property, first by insinuating that they\nare residents and then by telling a new poorly educated groundkeeper that\nthe children’s room is occupied and stealthily alters the apartment\nbuilding’s rental diagram to show that their rent is paid in advance. He\nclassifies Joe as retarded and Mark as insane. He notes that Joe is only\nwilling to meet Mark’s eyes when he speaks and is slow of action. He also\nobserves that “some celestial power meditates his death; so Mark believes.”\n\nOn the winter solstice, when Gene inquires as to their origin, Mark\nreplies, “I c-came from the sky — J-Joe out of the ground, G-Gene. Yes!\nF-from the sky! I f-fell, oh, f-fell so many, many. I h-had wings,” at\nwhich point he extends both his arms and his legs, making him think of a\nfour winged insect. Mark believes that now he is doomed to die rather than\nto fly. Joe asserts, “We have to die, too, Mark.” Here, Mark notes a\ncrimson sun and asks, “He’ll k-kill you, too, G-gene” — Today’s his day. He\ntakes your sun away.\n\nWhen Gene confirms that it is indeed the solstice, Joe is overcome with\nterror at the prospect of the red light he sees through the window flying\naway. Gene is reading at his desk, Griffith's *Mercenaries of the\nHellenistic World,* and covers the author's name at its reminder of the\ndeath of his friend David. He also reassures Joe that the crimson light\nthey see is not the yellow light of the sun. Joe tries to launch himself\nthrough the window and Mark saves him, saying it is merely a red stop light.\n\nMark calms him by promising to cross the river to find “the sun” together\nand bring it back. Here Gene admits in his own thoughts that the window has\nbeen tugging at him as well, and that if Joe died, he would be even more\nlikely to hurl himself through it. They go to seek out the light.\n\nPassing through an industrial district, Gene thinks that they are like the\nMagi, “wise men who were in fact members of a certain Media tribe, who\nfollowed a star to Bethlehem. We three comprised a half-wit, a madman and a\nfool.” As they approach the light, Gene sees a man who appears to stand in\nthe fire. Joe realizes that the light is not the sun, but the man asserts\nthat it is indeed. Joe pleads with him to bring it back. The man says, “It\nhas never gone — but I will bring all of you again to it — because the time\nis not yet.” He looks disdainfully on Mark, but more kindly on Joe.\n\nHe then turns around and says that the hour is come, and at his back was\n“an entire new being: a live griffin, eagle-clawed and many-winged. Its\neagle's head screamed,” and Gene staggers backwards to the car, believing\nthis to be the start of his psychotic episode. The light seems to grow\nlarger and more brilliant, and he notes that the figure before it “was\nhorned like a Viking or a devil; and as I looked, it roared like a lion.”\n\nGene writes his psychologist of the event, and admits that Joe's visit the\nnext day makes him doubt that he actually lost his reason. Gene told Joe\nthat he was ill, and the boy admits that he has been ill from eating out of\nthe dumpster, “because they spray for flies.” Gene later thinks of the\nnickname of the devil, “the Baal of Flies”. He tells Joe he is going to see\na specialist, and Joe says, “we were just paying — you played, too. — Last\nnight you played with us.” He says that they do not get hurt, because they\n“take care of each other.” He looks out the window at the sunlit river,\nsmiling.\n\nThe ending of the text is a quote from *De Mundo* in which all sing\ntogether, moving in a dance around heaven and unite in harmony “whose cause\nis one, and whose end is one. It is this harmony which entitles the All to\nbe called Order, and not disorder.”\n\n\n\n DISCUSSION:\n\nThere are many religious, historical, and thematic implications of these\ntwo stories, but it is fruitful to view them in the vein of Wolfe’s\nprevious Solstice story, “At the Point of Capricorn”, in which a syncretic\nblend of pagan myth and Christian cosmology weave a dense tapestry. The\nfirst story ends without identifying the narrator as Gene. It maps the\nstruggle between the griffins and the Aramaspians onto that of David’s\nhunger for knowledge and power and his death through some spiritual or\nsupernatural agency, which steps in to prevent him from using powers beyond\nthose of mortals. In this case, the power seems to dwell with the sun, and\nthe Christmas wine David brings coupled with the indication that our\nnarrator seeks to look for the book during the Christmas season is of\ncourse related to the Winter Solstice. At the solstice, less sunlight will\nallow the narrator to search for David's volume without fearing the sun’s\nfull strength. While this is fairly simple, the second story complicates\nmatters metafictionally by turning our narrator into Gene, something which\nWolfe has done before in his “Procreation” series, and by bringing possibly\nangelic and demonic characters into direct interaction with our narrator,\ndespite his claims of a “psychotic episode” to explain away what he has\nwitnessed.\n\nThe obvious importance of the winter solstice to primitive cultures makes\nit significant to the modern world as well: the point at which the sun\nreaches its weakest point but then immediately begins to grow stronger,\nbringing warmth, sustenance, and continued fertility as the cyclic seasons\nturn; given its importance in many pagan rituals, it was an equally obvious\ntime for placing the birth of Christ on the calendar. The necessity of\nsacrifice mapped by Frazier in his *Golden Bough*, which also touched on\nChrist’s life story as another expression of this eternal cycle of death\nand rebirth tied to renewal, is also innately tied to this time of year.\nHowever, at times these stories seem to bring in an almost Gnostic world\nview in which the reality that we know through the senses is artificial,\nand our scheme of heaven and hell fails to adequately describe the harmony\nof the spheres, where high and low can work together for a higher purpose\nand human life and reality, the material plane, might be described as mere\nchild’s play.\n\nOne of the important thematic ideas that arises in “Slow Children at Play”\ninvolves the minor suicidal pull of Gene’s window, the one David fell to\nhis death from in showing off his control over reality. The mysterious\nlight which seems to be retreating in this story resonates not only with\nthe sun but with the idea of paradise itself, and the need to return to the\ndivine and be free from mortal life perhaps cause both Gene and Joe’s\ntemptation to hurl themselves from the window. If Mark has fallen from\nParadise, the pull is not as strong, but Joe seems to have risen up from a\nlower level, seeking to come ever closer to the symbol of paradise and\nsalvation. Of course, Joe’s compulsion seems much stronger than Gene's\n(perhaps he has been longer deprived of the communion with God or whatever\ncelestial power is symbolized by the light than the other characters,\nespecially given Mark’s tale of losing his wings and falling to earth). The\nbeing who guards the sun also seems far kinder to Joe than to Mark. The\nsimilarity between the terms for Griffin and Cherub in some Mesopotamian\nlanguages will be discussed below in Mythical Allusions, but the being\nguarding the light whose back forms both a lion and a horned devil\nfunctions as a guardian Cherub, the same angel which was tasked with\nkeeping fallen man from Eden and earthly paradise. This figure is described\nin almost oxymoronic language, bridging the gap between descriptions of\nunholiness and divinity in fascinating fashion: the horns of a devil or\nViking juxtaposed with the symbol for Christ, the lion, and a syncretic\nstory that ties together gold, nuclear power, the sun and the ancient myths\nof griffins with the descriptions of a Cherub from Biblical sources,\nprimarily the book of Ezekiel. In addition, the winter solstice/Christmas\nstory of the sun's waning power is directly tied into the life story of\nChrist by Gene's sentiment: he feels that they are the three Magi,\nfollowing the star to salvation. The moment in history of which he speaks,\nwhen God becomes man, is one in which some tragedy and sacrifice becomes\nnecessary for the greater good and for salvation, one which increases\nholiness rather than destroys it, for Christ is born to die. The waxing and\nwaning of the light and Gene's perception of this Cherub as perhaps evil in\nnature constitutes an incomplete understanding of a world view in which\ngood and bad, high and low, death and life, are all necessary and work in\nharmony.\n\nThe kindness the figure shows to Joe is very interesting, as it seems from\nhis reaction to the fly repellant in the dumpster and Gene’s rumination\nthat the devil, the Baal or Lord of Flies (Beelzebub) might be involved.\nThis would make Joe a demon who has risen up to the material plane. Whether\nhe is simply a servant or a fly echoes the insectile description of Mark\nand the idea that he might have lost four wings — a description which jives\nwith Ezekiel's accounts of cherubs, found below under Religious Allusions.\nA subservient devil and a fallen angel playing together, somehow innocent\nof the understanding of the choice between good and evil, are treated\ndifferently by this Cherub/Griffin. Perhaps the title refers to humanity in\ntrying to understand the actions and the cosmology of the universe, simply\nslow children trying to play a game, but it must also comment on the\ncomparative innocence of both the fallen angel and the risen demon.\n\nMYTHICAL ALLUSIONS:\n\nHerodotus, Pliny, and Strabo all speak of the one-eyed Arimaspoi who covet\ngold and war with their neighbors, the griffins who guard it. David\nmentions Sumer and Akkad, and the religion of both had parallels with\nmany Babylonian\nand Hebrew stories. Sumerians and Akkadians envisioned the universe as a\ndome surrounded by water. The earth, the firmament, and the water itself\nall became associated with deities. One of the Sumerian and Akkadian myths\ninvolves Anz?, “a divine storm-bird and the personification of the southern\nwind and the thunder clouds.” This demon, half man and half bird, stole the\nTablets of Destiny from Enlil, hiding them in a mountain. Eventually,\nwhether at the hands of Marduk or the arrows of Ninurta, Anz? was killed.\n(“Anz” (mythology)?)\n\nMuch as David’s book was meant to give him vast power, the tablets of\ndestiny conferred upon Enlil (or Enki, depending on the story) in Sumerian\nmyth was the source of his authority over the universe. David is guilty of\nthe same theft here as Anz?, though the bird imagery is confused and\ncombined with the description of the conflict between the Griffins and the\nArimaspians in Herodotus and other sources. It seems that David considers\nhimself something like Prometheus or Anz?, but in reality he maps to the\none eyed men, “half blinded by the sun,” who cannot see clearly because of\ntheir avarice and longing for gold or authority, staring too long into an\nimmense power. Clearly all of these stories also echo the myth of\nPrometheus, punished for bringing fire to man, tormented by an eagle in his\nbondage. (The Griffin, of course, usually has the body of a lion and the\nhead and wings of an eagle).\n\nThe Akkadian word for Griffin, karubu (implying a winged creature), is\nlinguistically related to Cherub (kuribu), fitting in with the theme of an\nangelic protector. Even the descriptions of Cherubim from Ezekiel match\nvery well, with both lion and eagle features.\n\nThe woman at the red jaguar waits for David, but it is unclear if she is\njust a mortal or something more. The reverence for Jaguars exists in Mayan\nand Aztec religions rather than in those of Sumer and Akkadia, so the\nsymbolic importance of her car might be a dead end in determining her\nidentity. In any case, the revolving flame in “Slow Children at Play” seems\nto be guarded by the griffin/cherub, who says that it is indeed the “sun”.\n\nTHE TREE:\n\nIn “At the Point of Capricorn”, the solstice ceremony also involves the\nmention of a tree that is used to call back the sun, and here background\nmythology involves gold being used as an energy source for some mythic\ntree, fed by the effort of the flying Griffins. We are all aware that the\ntradition of the Christmas tree has pagan origins; trees were used in an\nattempt to appease the sun gods who diminished in power until the solstice.\nThis can be seen in the use of the evergreen in Egyptian practices\nworshipping Ra, with the Romans and their Saturnalia, and of course with\nthe Druids and Vikings as well (the Cherubim in “Slow Children at Play”\nalso has horns like a Viking’s helm). It might very well be that the\nYggdrasil or world tree is meant, with celestial energy fueling it, but\njust as likely the warmth for the tree David speaks of is symbolic in\nnature and related to these pagan and Christian solstice rituals.\n\nGOLD, THE MAGNIFYING GLASS, AND M.H.:\n\nDavid’s proclivity for golden and gold-accented things is derivative of the\nArimaspian myth. His magnifying glass with its golden initials seems to\nrepresent a way not only to harness and focus the power of the sun, but\nalso focuses two eyes into one lens. This may turn David into a symbolic\nArimaspian as well, when he looks through it. Speculation on the actual\nmeaning of M.H. on the magnifying glass could lead just about anywhere,\nwith no real way of determining if we are correct save perhaps David’s\nproclivity for gold: he collects gold gilt volumes and there is gold foil\non his wine of choice. The initials are also in gold. This might even be a\nbrand designation. His obsession with the ultimate gold, the message of the\nsun via sunspots transmuted into a book, might invoke the alchemical text\nby John Dee, the *Monas Hieroglyphica*, which deals extensively with\ncosmogony and decryption. David harnesses the power of the sun with the\nmagnifying glass to inscribe his own initials in a metaphorical process\nsimilar to harnessing the sun to create his ideal book. However, given the\nsymbolic import of a magnifying glass, the text leaves assigning a definite\nexplanation for M.H. fairly open. Even something as obscure as Mycroft\nHolmes could be implied (whose specialism is impractical and indolent\nomniscience, after all, compared to his brother Sherlock’s practical\ndeductive skills), or even a scientist who works with gold whose initials\nhappen to be M.H.\n\nWhether intentional or not, there are some striking echoes between the\nthemes of Dee’s manuscript and these short stories. The *Monas\nHieroglyphica* operates under the cabalistic idea that manipulation of the\nletters and symbols of the Hebrew language can be used to influence the\nworld and the cosmos due to some kind of astral relationship between\nlanguage and the signs of the zodiac. This is similar to the decoding David\nperforms in which the sun spot patterns become the text he has sought all\nhis life. According to Michael Walton, Dee’s treats “the Monad’s\ninterpretation as an art of writing which revealed all astronomical\nknowledge, both the greater astronomy of the heavens and the lesser\nastronomy of alchemy.” (118) Dee also believed this was the key to “all\nthings visible and invisible”. If indeed the M.H. initials invoke Dee’s\nwork at all, then mathematics and the Hebrew language have been replaced\nwith nuclear science and Chaldean, respectively. This association with\nChaldea resonates with the historical Chaldean Oracles, which are Greek\ncommentaries on a poem of Chaldean origin. In this poem, the first\nintellect emanates fiery rays which are interpreted by the second\nintellect, the Demiurge, to understand and influence the cosmos. Even the\nsymbol of Dee’s Monad can resemble a magnifying glass in some of its\ncomponents, which are broken down below:\n\nhttp://www.jwmt.org/v2n13/partial.html (Turner).\n\nThe spirits of Sumer and Ur also resonate with the tale of Prometheus,\nstealing fire for man. The provenance of flame in Zorastrian thought is\nwell known, and the cosmic significance of the solstice to the story is\nequally apropos.\n\nTHE HARMONY OF THE SPHERES AND GNOSTICISM\n\nThe poem that concludes “Slow Children at Play”, *De Mundo*, is included in\na footnote to Hans Jonas? treatise on *The Gnostic Religion: The Message of\nthe Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity*, in which the harmony of\nastral bodies and the cosmos is discussed. It could very well be that this\nis the source Wolfe used in finding the poem. The book states:\n\n The Pythagoreans had found in the astral order the proportions of the\nconcordant musical scale, and accordingly had called this system of the\nspheres in operation a harmonia, that is, the fitting together of a many\ninto a unified whole. Thereby they created the most enchanting symbol of\nGreek cosmic piety: “harmony,” issuing in the inaudible “music of the\nspheres,” is the idealizing expression for the same fact of irrefragable\norder that astrology stresses less optimistically in its own context. Stoic\nphilosophy strove to integrate the idea of destiny as propounded by\ncontemporary astrology with the Greek concept of harmony: ? its action as\nit affects terrestrial conditions and the short lived beings here. And\nsince the stellar movements are actuated by the cosmic logos and this logos\nfunctions in the world process as providence (pronoia), it follows that in\nthis wholly monistic system heimarmene itself is pronoia, that is, fate and\ndivine providence are the same. The understanding of and willing consent to\nthis fate thus interpreted as the reason of the whole distinguishes the\nwise man, who bears adversity in his individual destiny as the price paid\nby the part for the harmony of the whole. (259)\n\nThe text goes on to present a Gnostic revaluation of the idea of this\nharmonic piety and presents this cosmic order as anti-divine, yet it seems\nthat in this case the Wolfe story sticks with the pre-Gnostic valuation of\nthe solar bodies and even integrates Judeo Christian “good” and ?evil?\nangels as mere children at play.\n\nThe mixed symbolism of the fallen angel with almost insectile multi-part\nwings, the aversion Joe has to the fly repellent, the satanic and Christian\nimagery used to describe the griffin like figure taking the sun in the\nsecond story (described with horns like a devil but roaring like a lion,\nwhich is symbolic of Christ): all of these conflicting symbols create a\nconfusing cosmology where good and evil are blurred together. Marcion’s\nheresies of the world as a fallen illusion might even fit in to this scheme.\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL ALLUSIONS:\n\nMuch like “On the Train” and a few of Wolfe’s other short shorts, these\nstories have some biographical details. According to the Wolfewiki,\n\nA friend of Wolfe's, David Taylor, provided inspiration for the character\nDavid in The Arimaspian Legacy. In a Q and A style interview posted on\nFantastic Metropolis, Wolfe made the following comment. \"Of course I have\nten thousand memories connected with books. How about being introduced to\nDickens by my friend David Taylor, who had been reading Pickwick and talked\nlike Mr. Jingle when he described the book? David has been dead for more\nthan 40 years, but you will find him as David Arimaspian in my story “The\nArimaspian Legacy.\" (?The Arimaspian Legacy”)\n\n“Slow Children at Play” was based in part on an actual light -- a\nmysterious light in this case -- which I saw once and have never seen\nagain. It's also based on a traffic sign about a half a block north of this\nhouse. (“Slow Children at Play”)\n\nMORAL IMPLICATIONS:\n\nIn addition to retelling the story of Prometheus, in this case involving\nnot merely altruism but also self-aggrandizement, the second story in the\nsequence paints an almost astonishing moral picture of the cosmos. The\ntitle “Slow Children at Play”, while it comes from a sign which sometimes\ndepicts two children on a teeter totter, is another example of semiotic\nslippage in Wolfe, where he applies the imperative ?[Go] Slow(!)? to\ninstead function as an adjective. The insinuation that Mark fell from\nheaven and is a celestial being while Joe came from below and is repelled\nby fly treatments as a possible minion of the Lord of the Flies shows the\nhigh and the low living together, innocent of good and evil, almost as if\nthey are at play in the mortal plane. Perhaps this sign showed the two\nchildren on the teeter totter as some of those “Slow Children at Play”\nsigns do — one descending from on high, the other on his way up from the\nbottom, such that Mark and Joe are headed in opposite directions, one\nfalling and one rising, but balanced for a time in the middle on the\nmaterial plane.\n\n\n\n Both are ignorant of money and other earthly concerns. The overlaying of\nGnostic thought, in which the cosmos is composed of an Empyrian, Etherial,\nand Elemental world matches the levels implied by the story as Mark and Joe\nmeet in the middle. In “reality”, they are simple children without the\nburden of excessive sin. The idea that high and low ultimately serve the\ndivine purpose is repeated in Wolfe several times, but it is very cryptic\nin this story. Why is a fallen angel consorting with a minion of Beezebub\nin Gene’s apartment building? Is this simply to show how spiritual forces\nmove and work in the real world innocent of free will and culpability, as\nthese children are innocent?\n\nLIERARY ALLUSIONS:\n\nGene mentions that the author’s name, G.T. Griffith, reminds him of David’s\ndeath, which of course is because of its similarity to griffins. However,\nWolfe was almost certainly familiar with this tome, *Mercenaries of the\nAncient World*, from doing research for his Latro novels.\n\nBIBLICAL ALLUSIONS\n\nThe description of Cherubim as having four wings and dispensing fire comes\nfrom the book of Ezekiel. This description definitely shows the manner in\nwhich Wolfe conflated the Griffin and Cherubim. The four faces of the\ncherubim are that of an eagle, a lion, a man, and an ox (or a cherub in a\nlater description). It is quite clear that Wolfe has taken the leonine,\naquiline, and linguistic similarities to heart in his construction of the\nsupernatural beings in his story. The Book of Ezekiel describes Cherubim at\nlength, and even shows them playing with fire:\n\n1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was\namong the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw\nvisions of God.\n\n2 On the fifth of the month--it was the fifth year of the exile of King\nJehoiachin-- 3 the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of\nBuzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of\nthe LORD was upon him.\n\n4 I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north--an immense cloud\nwith flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of\nthe fire looked like glowing metal,\n\n5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance\ntheir form was that of a man,\n\n6 but each of them had four faces and four wings.\n\n7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and\ngleamed like burnished bronze.\n\n8 Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man. All\nfour of them had faces and wings,\n\n9 and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead; they\ndid not turn as they moved.\n\n10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man,\nand on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face\nof an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.\n\n11 Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward; each had two\nwings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two\nwings covering its body.\n\n12 Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would\ngo, without turning as they went.\n\n13 The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or\nlike torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright,\nand lightning flashed out of it. 14 The creatures sped back and forth like\nflashes of lightning.\n\nEzekiel 1: 1-13\n\n22 Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like\nan expanse, sparkling like ice, and awesome.\n\n23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out one toward the other,\nand each had two wings covering its body.\n\n24 When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the\nroar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of\nan army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.\n\nEzekiel 1:22-24\n\n3 Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the\nman went in, and a cloud filled the inner court.\n\n4 Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherubim and moved to the\nthreshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was\nfull of the radiance of the glory of the LORD.\n\n5 The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the\nouter court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.\n\n6 When the LORD commanded the man in linen, \"Take fire from among the\nwheels, from among the cherubim,\" the man went in and stood beside a wheel.\n\n7 Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand to the fire that was among\nthem. He took up some of it and put it into the hands of the man in linen,\nwho took it and went out.\n\n8 (Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like the hands\nof a man.)\n\nEzekiel 10:3-8\n\nTheir entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings,\nwere completely full of eyes ...\n\nEzekiel 10:12\n\nEach of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the\nsecond the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the\nface of an eagle.\n\nEzekiel 10:14\n\nUNANSWERED QUESTIONS:\n\n What do the M.H. initials on the magnifying glass really signify?\n\n Who is the woman in the red jaguar?\n\nCONNECTION WITH OTHER WORKS:\n\nThe idea of the monad was expressed overtly in “Procreation”, but here it\nattains a mystical alchemy of consciousness. Much like “At the Point of\nCapricorn”, these stories deals with the mysterious resonance between the\npagan and Christian worlds and a spiritual exploration of solar events,\nespecially the obviously and symbolically gravid winter solstice/Christmas\nseason in which the sun loses power and is then reborn. Both “Slow Children\nat Play” and “The Friendship Light” may have been based on the same\nmysterious light that Wolfe once saw. The idea that all creatures, high and\nlow, serve a harmonious goal consonant with the will of God will be\nrepeated in both Long Sun and Short Sun, as well as in many other of\nWolfe’s later stories.\n\nRESOURCES:\n\n“Anz” (Mythology)?. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 18 November 2014. Web.\nJanuary 5, 2015.\n\n*Holy Bible: New International Version*. Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1978.\n\nJonas, Hans. *The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the\nBeginnings of Christianity*. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958.\n\n“Slow Children at Play.” Wolfe-wiki. October 27, 2010. Web. Januray 5, 2015.\nhttp://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.SlowChildrenAtPlay\n\n“The Arimaspian Legacy.” Wolfe-wiki. June 26, 2014. Web. January 5, 2015.\nhttp://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Stories.TheArimaspianLegacy\n\nTurner, Nancy and Teresa Burnes. ?A Translation of Theorems 1-17 of John\nDee’s *Monas Hieroglyphica?**. *Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition.\nNo. 13, Vol. 2. Vernal Equinox 2007\n\nWalton, Michael. “John Dee’s *Monas Hieroglyhpica*: Geometrical\nCabala.” *Alchemy\nand Early Modern Chemistry: Papers from Ambix*, ed. Allen G. Debus. Jeremy\nMills Publishing, 2004." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-01-05T22:54:31+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Stories 112-113: The Arimaspian Legacy and Slow\n Children at Play", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "(Did my previous post go through with the long write-up?)\n\nI was just thinking that the biblical allusion with Ezekiel in chapter 10,\nof the cherubim and the fire, resonates with an earlier sacking and burning\nof the temple by the Chaldeans, and that the language which David\ntranslates from the sun is Chaldean, further complicating the cosmological\nrelationship between pagan and Judeo-Christian symbolism in the texts. (In\nsome ways, the harmony invoked explicitly by the final poem justifies evil\nand destruction as part of \"the plan\").\n\nThe geography of heaven and the celestial throne is also described in\nEzekiel, and it seems that the derelict forlorn things south of the the\nthrone match up with the ruins to the south of the narrator's house.\n\nI think it quite clear that Wolfe had that biblical passage in mind in\nwriting Slow Children at Play, especially noting the hands facing the\nlight, as man who warms his hands behind him at a fire. His insectile\ndescription of the fallen angel is perhaps derivative of his approach in\nUrth of the New Sun as well." } ] }, { "message_id": "<54B85B02.7050709@verizon.net>", "from": { "name": "David Stockhoff", "address": "dstockhoff at verizon.net" }, "date": "2015-01-16T00:27:46+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Stories 112-113: The Arimaspian Legacy and Slow\n Children at Play", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 1/5/2015 3:36 PM, Marc Aramini wrote:\nGOLD, THE MAGNIFYING GLASS, AND M.H.:\n\nDavid’s proclivity for golden and gold-accented things is derivative \nof the Arimaspian myth. His magnifying glass with its golden initials \nseems to represent a way not only to harness and focus the power of \nthe sun, but also focuses two eyes into one lens. This may turn David \ninto a symbolic Arimaspian as well, when he looks through it. \nSpeculation on the actual meaning of M.H. on the magnifying glass \ncould lead just about anywhere, with no real way of determining if we \nare correct save perhaps David’s proclivity for gold: he collects gold \ngilt volumes and there is gold foil on his wine of choice. The \ninitials are also in gold. This might even be a brand designation. His \nobsession with the ultimate gold, the message of the sun via sunspots \ntransmuted into a book, might invoke the alchemical text by John Dee, \nthe /Monas Hieroglyphica/, which deals extensively with cosmogony and \ndecryption. David harnesses the power of the sun with the magnifying \nglass to inscribe his own initials in a metaphorical process similar \nto harnessing the sun to create his ideal book.\n\n.... Even the symbol of Dee’s Monad can resemble a magnifying glass in \nsome of its components, which are broken down below:\n\nhttp://www.jwmt.org/v2n13/partial.html (Turner)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I really like your association of David with the \"wizard\" Dee, who \nhimself could be said to be like a magnifying glass, given that he seems \nto have gathered together and examined material from a variety of \nancient sources to bring order and focus to it. This association should \nbe taken as far as it can. I wonder if some mid-century writer made this \ncomparison/metaphor in a Foreword to an obscure old book on a related \ntopic . . .\n\nIn support of your discussion of insectile figures, horns, and wings, I \nwanted to highlight this diagram from Turner:\n\nhttp://www.jwmt.org/v2n13/images/monas/new%20Theorem%20XV_small.jpg\n\nIt needs no further comment.\n\nI also enjoyed this section of your analysis:\n\n MORAL IMPLICATIONS:\n\n In addition to retelling the story of Prometheus, in this case\n involving not merely altruism but also self-aggrandizement, the\n second story in the sequence paints an almost astonishing moral\n picture of the cosmos. The title “Slow Children at Play”, while\n it comes from a sign which sometimes depicts two children on a\n teeter totter, is another example of semiotic slippage in Wolfe,\n where he applies the imperative ?[Go] Slow(!)? to instead\n function as an adjective. The insinuation that Mark fell from\n heaven and is a celestial being while Joe came from below and is\n repelled by fly treatments as a possible minion of the Lord of\n the Flies shows the high and the low living together, innocent\n of good and evil, almost as if they are at play in the mortal\n plane. Perhaps this sign showed the two children on the teeter\n totter as some of those “Slow Children at Play” signs do — one\n descending from on high, the other on his way up from the\n bottom, such that Mark and Joe are headed in opposite\n directions, one falling and one rising, but balanced for a time\n in the middle on the material plane.\n\nI can just imagine \"the Wolfean mind\" turning this image over and over, \nwondering to what purpose it can be put, as Wolfe drives around his \nneighborhood." } ] } ] }