{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/6",
    "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'"
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  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 6,
    "subject": "Long Sun Allegory",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1996-12-04T18:28:31+00:00",
    "last": "1996-12-04T18:28:31+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0001-0006@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jim Jordan",
        "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net"
      },
      "date": "1996-12-04T18:28:31+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Long Sun Allegory",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Ossipagans,\n\n\tRe-reading the last two chapters of volume three of the Book of the Long\nSun, in preparation for volume four, I suddenly realized that Father Silk\nis not only a good pastor, but a Christ figure in the sense of acting out\nthe events in Jesus' life. Wolfe would say a \"Christian figure,\" since we\nare all to live in Christ and be Christlike; but here, as in the Book of\nActs and in Cordwainer Smith's \"Scanners Live in Vain,\" there is an\nallegorical presentation of this matter.\n\tThe reader should bear in mind that Wolfe is a devout, practising Roman\nCatholic strongly influenced by G.K. Chesterton, and that a number of his\nother works are Christian allegories. \n\n\tConsider: (Spoiler Warning: Numbers 1-17 come from the first three volumes\nonly; after that you are at risk.)\n\n\t1. Silk's \"enlightenment\" and call by the Outsider // Jesus' baptism. Some\nhave thought that this might merely be a downloading of information from\nMainframe, but Mainframe is not the Outsider, and it becomes clearer and\nclearer that the Outsider is the God of the Bible.\n\n\t2. The Crow (Night Chough) who accompanies Silk // the Holy Spirit Dove\nwho accompanies Jesus.\n\n\t3. Silk receives a foot wound right away // Jesus as the One whose foot\nwas bruised (Genesis 3:15).\n\n\t4. Silk is a priest who is reputed to be king also // Jesus, and the\ngradual reputation He acquired as King-Messiah.\n\n\t5. The riot and war that take place about \"Calde\" Silk in Viron // the\nchaos in Jerusalem when \"King\" Jesus arrives at Palm Sunday.\n\n\t6. Silk dies and is buried at the end of volume 3, and then is raised to\nlife again by the Outsider // Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.\n\n\t7. Silk leads the Whorl's inhabitants to a new land // Jesus and the\nNew Creation.\n\n\t8. By the end of volume three, Silk is completely free from idolatry, and\nready to begin to deliver the people from it // Jesus' work to deliver us\nfrom idolatry and to the worship of the Outsider (Creator).\n\n\t9. The whorl is a self-contained, enclosed world, much like the First\nCreation. It is maintained by the angelic Fliers from Mainframe, who will\nnot be needed once the people migrate to the outside (Outsider's) world.\n\n\t10. The whorl's inhabitants can be possessed by evil gods from Mainframe,\nand can be guided by good gods (Tenebrous Tartarus), and can be possessed\nby telepathic humans like Mucor // the outbreak of demonic possession in\nthe gospels, and the angelic guidance of the prophets. Compare Auk and,\nsay, Ezekiel or Jeremiah or Daniel of John (Book of Revelation).\n\n\t11. Big, lumbering, good-hearted Auk is Silk's Peter.\n\n\t12. Hyacinth // the Mary Magdelene of mythology (prostitute), who is\nsupposedly Jesus' earthly temptress to earthly love (as in _The Last\nTemptation of Christ_). Like Jesus, Silk loves her but does not bed her (in\nbook three).\n\n\t13. The choice of \"Exodus\" as title for the fourth volume is significant;\nit might have been \"Departure\" or something else. \n\n\t14. The government of Viron is a clan of cousins (all named for various\nLemurs), who have replaced the King (Calde) // compare the family of High\nPriests in the gospels, who supersede the Davidic line. \n\n\t15. Silk is constantly tempted in all points like as we are, as\nthe Outsider told him he would be, yet without sin (though he, unlike\nJesus, is a sinner.)\n\n\t16. We know from the Severian Quintet that two-headed Pas is the wicked\nand titanic Typhon // the devil. He rules the whorl, and makes himself god\nthere (Pas means \"all\"). Clearly, leaving the whorl and moving to a planet\nwill mean deliverance from this Luciferian Overlord.\n\n\t17. When Typhon-Pas built the whorl from an asteriod, he suppressed the\noriginal religion of the people he put into it, and superimposed on them\nthe worship of himself and his family; but the original (Christian)\nreligion remains underneath (the Outsider as the forgotten God). The \"sign\nof addition\" is the sign of the cross; while Pas's \"voided cross\" or\n\"gammadion\" is a swastika.\n\n\t18. And now to book four (spoiler warning). Silk was decanted from an\nembryo kept in storage. Parallel virgin birth of Jesus. (Info on Silk is\ngiven in the cast of characters section at the beginning of book four.)\n\n\t19. Silk travels to the angelic realm of the fliers. Compare ascension of\nJesus.\n\n\t20. Silk's personality joins Pas and his lover, replacing Pas's dead head,\nand thus is \"seated at the right hand of the Father.\" Compare Jesus's\nenthronement with Father and Spirit at His ascension. The \"Pas\" in\nMainframe is not quite the same as Typhon, in this regard. He is a kind of\n\"Good Lucifer.\"\n\n\t21. Hyacinth's gross waywardness and infidelity are pictures of the\nsinfulness of Christ's Church-Bride. Wolfe makes sure we are both horrified\nand forgiving of her sins.\n\n\t22. When Silk returns to Viron, it is armageddon, the end of the world\nbattle. Compare the prophecies of Christ's return.\n\n\t23. At this armageddon, Silk delivers his church, which was his task all\nalong: Save the Manteion. Jesus returns to rescue His Bride from armageddon\nand to take her to heaven.\n\n\t24. At the last moment, Silk's own wayward bride, Hyacinth, prefers this\nworld to the world to come, and Silk rushes forth to save her at all costs.\nA moving finale, and a picture once again of the abiding sinfulness of the\nBride of Christ.\n\n\t25. Auk-Peter becomes the captain of the new church that goes forth into\nthe new land. Note: Wolfe combines the ideas of the second coming of Christ\nwith the movement of the Church into the New Creation at His ascension. \n\n\t26. In the old world, Silk fought mainly against political and human\n\"enemies.\" In the new world, the enemies are ghostly vampires. Just so, in\nthe Old Testament the enemies were human, while the Church now must fight\nagainst \"principalities and powers\" that come from the \"other world\"\n(green) and descend upon us to devour us.\n\n\tOkay, this is just the beginning. Who wants to add to the list? I'll start\nus out:\n\n\t27. (?) The Church is like a lion, image of Aslan. Compare Hyacinth's\nlittle lion, protected by the Night Chuff.\n\n\t28. The long conversations in Exodus are Wolfe's idea of good evangelism,\nas various persons are gradually persuaded to switch sides and follow Silk.\nThis is the Church's work, which comes into play after the resurrection of\nChrist (Silk).\n\n\t29. It turns out that the usurpers of Viron are all already dead; they\nsustain their power artificially, by force and fear instead of by love and\naffection. This is another New Testament theme.\n\nJames B. Jordan\n\n\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}