Chrasmo Writings

Way back at the beginning of all this I provided a long list of gospel parallels for the story of Silk. Of course, that's Wolfe's doing. But since Horn and Nettle wrote TBLS, and since much of it is pious invention to one degree or another, it follows that either (a) it is an accident that the Silk story parallels the story of Jesus, or (b) that Horn and Nettle had a version of the story of Jesus before them as they wrote TBLS, and deliberately crafted Silk as a kind of new messiah. If the latter, which seems likely, this means that some version/s of the gospel/s are included in the Chrasmo Writings -- which I guess we should expect, but which is nowhere made explicit. Food for thought, or controversy. Patera Nutria *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

Or, (c), the pattern of the Messiah-story is deeply ingrained in the "collective unconciousness" or the nature of the human soul or, uh, whatever. But in support of (b), i. The (fairly few) quotes from the Chrasmological Writings actually offered to us are, I believe, either quotes from real Scripture (though not necessary the Hebrew-Christian Scriptures) or variants thereon. I believe the bit about daubing the raven comes from Jeremiah, for example. ii.Silk actually talks (or maybe thinks) about a man back on the Short Sun Whorl who was both enlightened and possessed by the Outsider and was crucified. Presumably this would come either form the CWs or -- uh, where else? *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

Or the Outsider has been taking a hand--when he enlightened Silk, or just in general, the way he makes sure that auguries and Gaonese astrologers provide correct prophecies or that Chrasmological bibliomancies provide good advice. (Unless you believe all that stuff was put in by Horn retroactively.) The Outsider may also have been at work influencing the "Chrasmologists", incidentally. Dare I say "inspiring"? Also, Typhon was apparently a contemporary of the Conciliator, so messianic messages may have been familiar to him and his sprats and the early Chrasmologists. Jerry Friedman

Well, I've taken it that time-travelling Severian was the Conciliator. We also have reference in the Memoirs of Severian to the "theoanthropos," and I think He predated the Conciliator by many thousands of years. FWIW. Nutria *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

IIRC, Rostrum proved that the most extended bits of the Writings that we have are straight from Marcus Aurelius. Not the allusions to items, but the actual text we have. The Writings are the usual "grab bag" of things. =mantis= Sirius Fiction Has Moved To http://www.siriusfiction.com/ *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

I wrote

And as I sent it, I said "Doh!" No, not Rostrum--it was Charles Dye (aka raster) who nicely showed the links. My apologies for the mistake! =mantis= Sirius Fiction Has Moved To http://www.siriusfiction.com/ *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.