Subject: Gene Wolfe - two carpenters

From: (unknown) <>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:02:19 +0000

by John Farrell
First Things http://www.firstthings.com
April 2007

..Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" started out as a long novella 
and rapidly grew to a four-volume science-fiction tour de force. The 
hero, Severian, is a lictor--a professional torturer--whose entire life 
has been dedicated to the infliction of agony. "It has been remarked 
thousands of times," Wolfe once said, "that Christ died under torture. 
Many of us have read so often that he was 'a humble carpenter' that we 
feel a little surge of nausea on seeing the words yet again. But no one 
ever seems to notice that the instruments of torture were wood, nails, 
and a hammer; that the man who built the cross was undoubtedly a 
carpenter too; that the man who hammered in the nails was as much a 
carpenter as a soldier, as much a carpenter as a torturer. Very few 
seem even to have noticed that although Christ was a 'humble 
carpenter,' the only object we are specifically told he made was not a 
table or a chair, but a whip."...
==========
John 2:15 http://snipurl.com/1hzg9

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From: jcon <cirejcon at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:41:15 +0000

On Apr 26, 1:02 am, Jacket Dust <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-
Header@[127.1]> wrote:
> by John Farrell
> First Thingshttp://www.firstthings.com
> April 2007
>
> John 2:15http://snipurl.com/1hzg9

There's another book that has
a scene where Jesus is working in his shop on something
for "an important client". At the end of the scene
a couple of Roman soldiers how up and pick up
(of course) their brand new cross.  It says
something like "They paid well and he
needed the work".

Can't remember another thing about the book,
except that I read it a long time ago.  Any
ideas?  The twist has probably been
used more than once.

-jc

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From: Christopher J. Henrich <chenrich at monmouth.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:09:14 +0000

> ideas?  The twist has probably been
Could be /The/ /Last/ /Temptation/ /of/ /Christ/, by Nikos Kazantzakis.

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From: Bran MacEachaidh <bran at tpg.com.au>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 04:48:23 +0000

> ideas?  The twist has probably been
Well, if you believe Mel Gibson, Jesus invented dining-room furniture ...