Rostrum writes:
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Others have pointed out that Severian seems to fill the "Christ figure" definition in several ways (working miracles, saving the world), but the things that most often cause a character to be compared to Christ are sacrificial death or suffering for others and some form of death, burial, and resurrection. Using those two criteria, I'd say Silk (ObWhorl!) fits the bill for "Christ figure" more than Severian, and neither one fits as well as, say, Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (trying to dredge up a "Christ figure" from high school English classes and probably getting the name wrong) or Tolkein's Aragorn.
With regards to Severian's death, resurrection, et. al - I'd like to recall the whole Apu Punchau (spelling?) sequence at the end of the New Sun books.
On the actual early church parallels in the Long Sun books, isn't it
interesting that the Long Sun, as told by Horn (who is a
contemporary, but not central figure in the events in question), reconstructed after the fact, parallels the same sort of storytelling one sees in the Gospels? The Book of Horn? This could be compared to the first person narrative of the New Sun books, where (if you'll forgive my stretching the analogy a wee bit) is written from the Messiah's point of view.
Kevin McGuire
(.sig omitted because I clearly don't have a clue how to format the damn things - not that Philadelphia isn't a pretty damn scary place, Patrick...)