{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6742", "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": 6742, "subject": "Short Story 192*: The Card", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2015-04-27T16:53:41+00:00", "last": "2015-04-27T16:53:41+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-04-27T16:53:41+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 192*: The Card", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "#THE CARD\n\n\"The Card\" first appeared in the March 2005 edition of *Asimov's Science\nFiction* and has never been collected.\n\n##Summary\n\nAn unnamed narrator (who enjoys telling stories and is probably meant to be\nGene Wolfe) presents the story a police officer named Augie, the husband of\nhis daughter's friend, relates over the course of a car ride. They pass a\nman Augie's age \"shuffling along the sidewalk\" in a bad part of town, which\nsparks Augie's tale: \"See that guy? He's going to damn me.\"\n\nAugie identifies the man as Wilhelm Boyd Anton, who lived a few houses down\nfrom him when they were children. Wilhelm later seemed to be doing well for\nhimself financially, until an event changed his life and he began beating\nand cutting himself in public, losing almost 50 pounds of weight. He had\nseen a card floating in a gutter, and when he picked it up, saw that it was\none of the rather old fashioned Catholic religious cards with the picture\nof a saint on them which \"went out of style when the rosary did and never\nreally came back.\" In this case, Wilhelm saw his own name and a painting of\nhimself as a younger man, with the title \"Blessed\" rather than \"Saint\" -\nimplying beatification but not canonization. \"He was a married guy with a\nwife who loved him and two kids back then, you understand, starting to get\nfat and lose his hair.\" Wilhelm\nthought about the possibility of doubles and then read about anomalies.\n\nAugie gives several examples of anomalies, first using police investigation\nmetaphors, describing something which doesn't belong at the scene of the\ncrime, allowing a conclusion to be drawn. He mentions a barrette found at a\nmurder scene committed by a woman, a snuff box alone on the counter of a\nconvenience store where a murder and robbery were committed, for the clerk\nknew the man who robbed him usually bought snuff every day and grabbed it\nas he walked in, and then other things that don't belong where they are: a\nkangaroo shot in Minnesota, a pen with the name of a store and a phone\nnumber on it that simply don't exist. Angie says the book he researched\nthis in \"says that things like that are crossovers from another\npossibility. ... It's not far from here, only we can't get there. Usually\nwe can't, but sometimes we do. ... So that was the way Billyboy explained\nthe card to himself, see? There was this other world, he'd been different\nthere, and probably God had dealt him the card to show him how it could\nhave been for him.\"\n\nAugie also reveals that Wilhelm knows exactly where he went wrong:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "There had been this one girl. I'm not going to tell you what he made her\ndo, or how he made her do it. Not what she did trying to scrag herself\nafterward, either. All of it was as ugly as sin ... That last part, the\nthing she did to herself, wasn't just ugly. It was messy. The thing was, it\nwas supposed to do for her, only it didn't work very good. She stumbled\naround screaming and bleeding. She'd fall down, and he'd figure she was\ndown for the count, but when he was trying to call nine one one she'd be up\nand grabbing him again, bleeding all over him and yelling that she wanted\nto die, he had to let her die." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Anton tries to save her and patch her up, hoping the whole while that she\nwill die and that it would be over. The hospital will not let him in, and\nas he dozes there he has visions of the whole event over and over. This\ncontinues in the night and the next day, when he still fails to get in to\nsee her. Her brother calls to say she has died, and that he is coming to\nhurt Anton. \"The brother punched him two or three times, knocked him down,\nand kicked him. And that was that. ... He still had the dreams, only not\nvery often. Then he found the card.\" After that he begins to cut and beat\nhimself and loses his job.\n\n\"He doesn't do that because he likes it, or to punish himself either. He\ndoes it to get his mind off what he did and what happened afterward. He's\nrepented and confessed and all that, but he can't stop thinking about it.\"\n\nAugie claims that Anton could tell our narrator how it ends if he talks to\nhim, for \"He knows, see? He's talked to God about it and talked to some\nangels about it, and talked to Father Mike ... and [Father Mike] told me.\n... He knows how it's going to to end, and I'm the one that's going to end\nit.\"\n\nThe narrator must here say that he doesn't want to know about it, because\nAugie responds: \"Hell's bells. Did I ask you if you wanted to know? ...\nHave a little charity, for Christ's sake. Let me get this off my chest.\" He\nsays one day Anton will take the card and show it to Augie, and Augie will\ndeny that it is him, reading a different name from the card and showing\nAnton how little he resembles the picture." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "And he'll die. That and all the cutting and whipping and stabbing will be\npunishment enough for him, for every bad thing he ever did, her included." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "He won't be beatified here - or he doesn't think he will. Father Mike's not\nso sure about that. But he'll be a saint in Heaven, and she'll meet him\nthere. They'll kiss and sh'll forgive him for everything, then and forever." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Only I'll die and be damned and never get out." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Because of the lie. Because when I say it isn't him and pretend to read\nthe made-up name I'll be lying through my teeth." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "##Commentary\n\nLike many of Wolfe's modern urban stories in which there seems to be a\ncharacter who could be Gene Wolfe, this story deals with a very Catholic\nand dualistic idea. The state of Blessedness which is under discussion is\npart of a process in the Catholic Church and the canonization of saints,\nbut the story also deals with the possibility of redemption and the\ndifference between a sin born of ignorance sincerely repented and one\nundertaken with foreknowledge.\n\nThe philosophical framework of the tale is that in *this* reality Augie\n(whose name is probably short for Augustus, the influential early Christian\nsaint who wrote \"On Lying\") is damning himself by denying a truth that will\nharm and destroy another human being. There is a sense that there are some\nmoral absolutes at play and a \"scale\" of damnation - it seems that this\nparticular lie will be mortal rather than venial - in this case, knowingly\nbearing false witness against his literal neighbor. (See the Catechism in\nReligious Allusions below for more details here). While it is clear that\nAugie believes this version of Anton will also be saved, there is a\nquestion about whether this particular version of Anton, excoriating his\nflesh in an attempt to forget his sin, will actually be \"Blessed\" ... this\nstory seems a more overtly spiritual version of Wolfe's similarly\nsecond-hand first person tale, \"A Fish Story\" - in which a man sees a\nbetter version of himself and is forced to confront what he really is.\n\nThe \"tale within a tale\" narrative framework in Wolfe has been employed\nseveral times in his shorter work, and allows Wolfe to create a\nsimultaneous empathy and distance with the secondary speaker in something\nwhich one might be tempted to compare with the cognitive estrangement of\nstandard science fiction applied to a modern setting. The unusual thing\nabout Wolfe is that he tends to employ this double narrator in settings\nwhich are *almost* realistic. This story, for example, could just as easily\nbe the self-flagellation of a man driven crazy by an image he believes he\nsaw on a card and the aftereffects of a traumatic event for which he feels\nresponsible - yet in Wolfe, for the most part the spiritual or mystical\nexplanation for the events is of course the valid one (Ironically, I feel\nthe most notable exception to this is the event most often simply accepted\nas mystical in nature: that of Patera Silk's enlightenment in *The Book of\nthe Long Sun*, where Crane's explanation of a brain event, from its first\nutterance, seems absurd - but might actually be just as true.)\n\nThe holy card which was once in vogue among Catholics is designed as a\nreminder of the communion of saints, who act as intercessors for mortals\nstill living and remind humans of what they are called to be. Here, this\ncard quite literally serves that purpose. (Usually, saints are considered\npatrons of a particular problem, need, or profession.) Certainly in this\ncase, Wilhelm needed the call to repentance, but it destroys his functional\nlife. The failure of a man to achieve his potential can certainly be\nattributed to free will, but this story complicates the idea of free will\nbecause of Augie's knowledge of the sin which will supposedly damn him - an\nalmost harmless lie, when he is telling a story of attempted suicide and\nprobably sexual sadism (or, alternatively, an abortion) which ends with the\nsinners reunited in heaven. Augie's sin seems to pale in comparison, and in\nthe Religious Allusions section below we will attempt to look at the\northodox explanation for the relative severity of his transgression. I\nbelieve that the primary crux of the tale is that one man's sin might quite\npossibly serve to beatify and martyr another man - a re-enactment of the\nsalvation of the death of Christ, where the sin of executing an innocent\nman serves to expiate the multitudinous sins of mankind. One man's\ndamnation is another's salvation in this story.\n\n##Religious allusions\n\nIn this case, we must actually look at the structure of the Catholic\nChurch's canonization process. Even in modern times, there are four stages\nto this (Servant of God, Heroic in Virtue, Blessed, and Saint) - and for\nWilhelm to be \"Blessed\", he must have been in the third stage. The issue\nfor this is that the individual must usually be deceased before they can\neven be declared a Servant of God. A bishop or church authority figure will\nopen an investigation to determine that indeed the person was worthy of\nveneration on his or her path to acting as an intercessor for the living\nwith God (a saint will have the \"beatific vision\" - the perfect\nintellectual communion with the other saints and God that is salvation -\nand even in the reality of the story, it seems that Anton might be\nexperiencing that: \"He talked to God about it and talked to some angels\nabout it and talked to Father Mike down at Saint Scholastica's about it.\nAnd he knows.\"). For the second step, the individual in question must have\nexhibited certain virtues: faith, hope, charity, temperance, justice,\nfortitude, and prudence (and Augie begs our primary narrator to listen to\nhis own yet to be committed sin: \"Have a little charity, for Christ's\nsake\"). In order for the person to attain the title of \"Blessed\" which\nWilhelm seems destined to achieve in some reality, there must be a\ndocumented miracle or a martyrdom. (Will Augie's fatal lie count as a\nmartyrdom for Anton?)\n\nFlagellation has a strange place in the history of the Catholic Church. In\nthe middle ages it might very well be seen as a form of penance for ascetic\nmovements, and in the 13th century it spread to a social proclamation of\npiety, but the Catholic Church eventually condemned the act as heretical.\nHowever, there are still some Roman Catholic Churches which seem to\npractice it even in Italy during Lent, with some others, such as Catholics\nin the Philippines, even crucifying themselves. We should probably view\nBoyd's actions as \"mortification of the flesh\" rather than flagellation, an\nattempt to eliminate and destroy the sins born of the body and its desires\n- and many penitential saints in the history of the Catholic Church\npracticed this extreme form of asceticism. The goal of Anton is not to\nexcoriate the sin from his body, though that may be what he is\naccomplishing - it is, according to Augie, to get the terrible sin and his\nguilt out of his mind.\n\nBoth the catechism and St. Augustine himself have something to say about\nlying. *The Catechism of the Catholic Church* is very specific on its\ntreatment of the eighth commandment:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "It was said to the men of old, \"You shall not swear falsely, but shall\nperform to the Lord what you have sworn.\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations\nwith others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy\npeople to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit\noneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and,\nin this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant. ..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear\nwitness to it: \"It is in accordance with their dignity that all men,\nbecause they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and bound\nby a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They\nare also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct\ntheir whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth.\" ..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence\nthat they were being truthful to one another.\" The virtue of truth gives\nanother his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what\nought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty\nand discretion. In justice, \"as a matter of honor, one man owes it to\nanother to manifest the truth.\"..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Before Pilate, Christ proclaims that he \"has come into the world, to bear\nwitness to the truth.\" The Christian is not to \"be ashamed then of\ntestifying to our Lord.\" In situations that require witness to the faith,\nthe Christian must profess it without equivocation, after the example of\nSt. Paul before his judges. We must keep \"a clear conscience toward God and\ntoward men.\"..." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Interestingly, this section of the Catechism even confronts martyrdom, and\ncouches much of the gravity of the sin attached to willfully lying based on\nthe concept of \"charity\", which Augie directly mentions in his plea to be\nheard:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means\nbearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who\ndied and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the\ntruth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an\nact of fortitude. \"Let me become the food of the beasts, through whom it\nwill be given me to reach God.\" ..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"Neither the pleasures of the world nor the kingdoms of this age will be\nof any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to\nChrist Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. I seek him who died\nfor us; I desire him who rose for us. My birth is approaching\". . ." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or\nact against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring\nman's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the\nfundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it\ndeforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the\nharm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial\nsin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice\nand charity." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of\nspeech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to\nothers. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying\nthings contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk\nof deadly consequences for those who are led astray." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to\nanother. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every\njudgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent\nevils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and\ntears apart the fabric of social relationships." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Every offense committed against justice and truth entails the duty of\nreparation, even if its author has been forgiven. When it is impossible\npublicly to make reparation for a wrong, it must be made secretly. If\nsomeone who has suffered harm cannot be directly compensated, he must be\ngiven moral satisfaction in the name of charity. This duty of reparation\nalso concerns offenses against another's reputation. This reparation, moral\nand sometimes material, must be evaluated in terms of the extent of the\ndamage inflicted. It obliges in conscience...." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every\nrequest for information or communication. The good and safety of others,\nrespect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being\nsilent about what ought not be known or for making use of a discreet\nlanguage. .... No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not\nhave the right to know it." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It appears as though Augie's sin in distorting the truth is mortal because\nit lacks the charity he begs our primary narrator for - punishing someone\nwho has already been punished enough to the final brink of death. Is the\ninstrument of one man's damnation the same as another's salvation? There is\nsomething transformative and compelling about this concept that might form\nthe crux of the spiritual conflict in the story. In the same section of the\nCatechism, the goal of art is considered, which might be worthwhile in the\npositioning of Wolfe as a particularly Catholic artist:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and\nmoral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of\nspiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the\nrational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is\nnecessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find\nother complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a\nmatter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the\nexaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself\nto man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal\nlanguage of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and\nharmony of the cosmos-which both the child and the scientist discover-\"from\nthe greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception\nof their Creator,\" \"for the author of beauty created them.\"" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Created \"in the image of God,\" man also expresses the truth of his\nrelationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search\nfor the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is\na freely given superabundance of the human being's inner riches. Arising\nfrom talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form\nof practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth\nof reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that\nit is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to\nGod's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art\nis not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the\nultimate end of man." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its\nparticular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the\ntranscendent mystery of God - the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and\nlove visible in Christ, who \"reflects the glory of God and bears the very\nstamp of his nature,\" in whom \"the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of\nGod, the angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to\nprayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and\nSanctifier.\n\nIn any case, all of this can be condensed into the concluding statements of\nthis section of the Catechism: \"Lying consists in saying what is false with\nthe intention of deceiving one's neighbor. An offense committed against the\ntruth requires reparation.The golden rule helps one discern, in concrete\nsituations, whether or not it would be appropriate to reveal the truth to\nsomeone who asks for it.\"\n\nIn light of Saint Augustine's importance to the development of Catholic\nDoctrine, it is worthwhile to take a brief look about his basic conclusion\nabout lying, from his treatise *On Lying/De Mendacio*" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Certain it is, albeit all this disputation go from side to side, some\nasserting that it is never right to lie, and to this effect reciting divine\ntestimonies: others gainsaying, and even in the midst of the very words of\nthe divine testimonies seeking place for a lie; yet no man can say, that he\nfinds this either in example or in word of the Scriptures, that any lie\nshould seem a thing to be loved, or not had in hatred; howbeit sometimes by\ntelling a lie you must do that you hate, that what is more greatly to be\ndetested may be avoided. But then here it is that people err; they put the\nprecious beneath the vile. For when you have granted that some evil is to\nbe admitted, that another and more grievous may not be admitted; not by the\nrule of truth, but by his own cupidity and custom does each measure the\nevil, accounting that to be the more grievous, which himself more greatly\ndreads, not which is in reality more greatly to be fled from. All this\nfault is engendered by perversity of loving. For being there are two lives\nof ours; the one eternal, which is promised of God; the other temporal, in\nwhich we now are: when a man shall have begun to love this temporal more\nthan that eternal, for the sake of this which he loves he thinks all things\nright to be done; and there are not any, in his estimation, more grievous\nsins than those which do injury to this life, and either take away from it\nany commodity unjustly and unlawfully, or by inflicting of death take it\nutterly away. ..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "It clearly appears then, all being discussed, that those testimonies of\nScripture have none other meaning than that we must never at all tell a\nlie: seeing that not any examples of lies, worthy of imitation, are found\nin the manners and actions of the Saints, as regards those Scriptures which\nare referred to no figurative signification, such as is the history in the\nActs of the Apostles. For all those sayings of our Lord in the Gospel,\nwhich to more ignorant minds seem lies, are figurative significations. And\nas to what the Apostle says: \"I am made all things to all men, that I might\ngain all;\" the right understanding is, that he did this not by lying, but\nby sympathy; so that he dealt with them in liberating them with so great\ncharity, as if he were himself in that evil from which he wished to make\nthem whole. There must therefore be no lying in the doctrine of piety: it\nis a heinous wickedness, and the first sort of detestable lie. There must\nbe no lying of the second sort; because no man must have a wrong done to\nhim. There must be no lying of the third sort; because we are not to\nconsult any man's good to the injury of another. There must be no lying of\nthe fourth sort, that is, for the lust of lying, which of itself is\nvicious. There must be no lying of the fifth sort, because not even the\ntruth itself is to be uttered with the aim of men-pleasing, how much less a\nlie, which of itself, as a lie, is a foul thing? There must be no lying of\nthe sixth sort; for it is not right that even the truth of testimony be\ncorrupted for any man's temporal convenience and safety. But unto eternal\nsalvation none is to be led by aid of a lie. For not by the ill manners of\nthem that convert him is he to be converted to good manners: because if it\nis meet to be done towards him, himself also ought when converted to do it\ntoward others; and so is he converted not to good, but to ill manners,\nseeing that is held out to be imitated by him when converted, which was\ndone unto him in converting him. Neither in the seventh sort must there be\nany lying; for it is meet that not any man's commodity or temporal welfare\nbe preferred to the perfecting of faith. Not even if any man is so ill\nmoved by our right deeds as to become worse in his mind, and far more\nremote from piety, are right deeds therefore to be foregone: since what we\nare chiefly to hold is that whereunto we ought to call and invite them whom\nas our own selves we love; and with most courageous mind we must drink in\nthat apostolic sentence: \"To some we are a savor of life unto life, to\nothers a savor of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these\nthings?\" Nor in the eighth sort must there be lying: because both among\ngood things chastity of mind is greater than pudicity of body; and among\nevil things, that which ourselves do, than that which we suffer to be done." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "In these eight kinds, however, a man sins less when he tells a lie, in\nproportion as he emerges to the eighth: more, in proportion as he diverges\nto the first. But whoso shall think there is any sort of lie that is not\nsin, will deceive himself foully, while he deems himself honest as a\ndeceiver of other men...." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "But it is time that we set bounds to this disputation: in the\nconsideration and treatment whereof altogether there is nothing more meet\nto be, before all else, borne in mind and made our prayer, than that which\nthe same Apostle says: \"God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be\ntempted above that you are able to bear, but will with the temptation make\nalso a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.\" (\"On Lying (Saint\nAugustine)\")" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "##Names\n\n-*Wilhelm Boyd Anton*: His first name means \"will\" or \"desire\" and\n\"protection\". Boyd means \"blond\" or \"yellow\", and Anton means \"worthy of\npraise\".\n\n-*Augie*: A shortened form of Augustus (or, in this case, possibly\nAugustine), Augie can mean \"deserving of respect\" or \"great\". Of course St.\nAugustine is one of the most influential thinkers and saints in the\nformation of the Catholic Church - he helped to standardize the idea of\noriginal sin. [Augustine is also one of the figures which makes the\nCatholic Church particularly malleable in the light of scientific\ndiscoveries, viewing Biblical texts as metaphors for truth which do not\nnecessarily need to be literally true to be valid - this symbolic paradigm\ngreatly informs the manner in which Wolfe writes and seems to be an\nattitude inimical to many Protestant Fundamentalists - in which the Bible\nis quite literally inerrant at the factual level. To a symbolist, seven\ndays could be seven trillion years, or even an instant separated into seven\nstages, and Cain a tribe of troglodytes - but still, some numinous way,\n*be* Cain.]\n\n-*Father Mike*: The priest at St. Scholastica's, Michael's name means\n\"poor\" and \"humble\". St. Scholastica is the patron saint of convulsive\nchildren and nuns, and serves to protect from storms. There was a private\nSt. Scholastica Academy in Chicago which closed its doors in 2012, but in\nthis story it sounds more like a parish than a school.\n\n##Unanswered questions\n\nIt seems that Wilhelm was \"Blessed\" in a different reality, but that the\npriest thinks he might achieve it in a different way in the reality of this\nstory. Why can't Augie do something different, armed with the knowledge of\nwhat might damn him, if Wilhelm can become \"Blessed\" even after a much more\nmalicious sin? Both would end in the death of another. Is Augie's sin\nmortal because of foreknowledge and the intentional nature of his future\naction? Does his lie martyr Anton, in the absence of other miracles, to\nmake him \"Blessed\"?\n\nIf Wilhelm and the girl whom he wronged kiss in heaven, what about\nWilhelm's once mentioned and then forgotten wife and children? What about\nthem in this reality, let alone in the afterlife? Did he commit his sin in\nhis youth or later, after he was married and had children?\n\n##Connection with other works\n\nThe Arismaspian stories, which deal with the proud reaching for celestial\npowers; \"Procreation\", which confronts a man hubristically creating his own\nminiature universe and naming it after himself; \"A Fish Story\", in which a\nman sees a better version of himself going to comfort a dying relative; and\n\"How the Bishop Sailed to Inniskeen\", in which an author searches for the\npast on a remote island and instead finds a priestly specter which he takes\nas a sinister omen for his own fate - all of these stories involve a kind\nof personal spiritual search that is explicitly allegorical or religious in\nnature, and all of them seem to feature a writer or teller of tales who\nmight be Gene Wolfe himself. It is clear that these modern, possibly\nbiographical though still fantastic sketches, are concerned with\n*possibilities*. \"The Card\" and \"A Fish Story\" really make this overt, as\nif stepping sideways into another universe actually seems possible. Even\n\"The Last Thrilling Wonder Story\", in which the Wolfe author tried to exert\nultimate control, wound up being a story in which stepping through\ndifferent realities, mimetic or not, was actually possible. I believe this\nis an outgrowth of Wolfe's spiritual exploration of free will, and is also\na feature of *The Book of the New Sun* with its multiple iterations of\nreality. We cannot change what we have done, but we can change what we\nare, and in an infinite universe (in Wolfe's fiction, at least), perhaps\nthere truly are a multiplicity of paths that were taken, in some mysterious\nway.\n\n#Resources\n\n-\"Article 8: The Eigth Commandment\". *Catechism of the Catholic Church*\n2006. Web. 25 April 2015.\nhttp://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a8.htm\n\n-\"On Lying (Saint Augustine)\". *New Advent*, Kevin Knight. 2009. Web. 26\nApril 2015. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1312.htm" } ] } ] }