# fluff and nonsense *The Urth list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 01 Jul 1998* > 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. --- ### Matthew Freestone *01 Jul 1998, 22:33* >> Dan Rabin: >> We have recently been discussing whether the identity of Severian, the New >> Sun, and the Conciliator is deducible from _The Book of the New Sun_. >> ``I, knowing no prayers, spoke without sound to someone who seemed at times >> within me and at times, as the angel had said, infinitely remote.'' > Michael Straight: > I don't think this bit says much about Severian's identity. It sounds to > me like the way many people might describe their experience of prayer, but > few if any would mean by it that they are themselves Jesus. It seems to > me more an expression of the paradox of God's immanence and transcendence. Or, as someone (Russell?) once put it, "I know that I am God, because whenever I try to pray, I find I'm talking to myself." -- II |\ _,,,---,,_ Matt Freestone II zzz. /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_. matthew at matthewf.demon.co.uk II |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' www.matthewf.demon.co.uk/ II '---''(_/--' `-'\_) --- ### Joshua A. Solomon *02 Jul 1998, 09:31 · follows Matthew Freestone* > Matthew Freestone wrote: > > Or, as someone (Russell?) once put it, "I know that I am God, because > whenever I try to pray, I find I'm talking to myself." Peter O'Toole in "The Ruling Class." bee ``` Joshua A. Solomon The Institute of Ophthalmology 11 - 43 Bath Street London EC1V 9EL Voice: (44) 171 608 6924 Fax: (44) 171 608 6846 j.solomon at ucl.ac.uk http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/personnel/jsolomon ``` ---