{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/665",
    "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'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 665,
    "subject": "BLUE religion notes",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1999-10-07T09:49:33+00:00",
    "last": "1999-10-07T14:04:14+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0066@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alex David Groce",
        "address": "alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu"
      },
      "date": "1999-10-07T14:04:14+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) BLUE religion notes",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Nor, for that matter, had Severian become a perfected being in URTH.  Despite\nthe Christ-imagery, none of Wolfe's heroes are Christ.  They're better viewed\nas apostolic, blessed figures--performing miracles left and right, wiser than\nthan have any right to be, aided by the forces of nature, but decidedly not\npart of the Godhead, and still capable of moral failure.\n\nI suspect the New Vironese motive for the \"goose chase\" is self contradictory--\nthe five who send Silk probably want to get rid of Horn, and have some of the\nmotives of squashing this \"new religion,\" but I suspect some of them (perhaps\nthe same ones harboring those motives) are also guilty of \"Silkism\" themselves,\nthose who knew Silk especially.  Glorifying Silk is part of the problem, they\nmay think, but they also may suspect that if Silk shows up it will \"fix\neverything.\"  Such mixed motives (and in some cases the right idea for the\nwrong reasons or wrong idea for the right reason) are typical Wolfe.  Does\nanyone else think that behind the stuttering Remora knows a LOT more about\nthings than even Horn thinks he does--he's seen Neighbors or some such, and\nI suspect he knows who the fourth on Mucor's island is, although he won't\nanswer any questions.\n\n\n\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\" John 8:32"
        },
        {
          "kind": "sig",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)\nPh.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department\n8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066\nhttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0069@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi",
        "address": "mantis at sirius.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-10-07T09:49:33+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) BLUE religion notes",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0010-0066@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Having said that OBW is like the authorized sequel to DON QUIXOTE, and\nresponding in part to questions of motives for the elders of New Viron in\nchoosing Horn for the goose chase, I offer the following notes:\n\nHorn (and Nettle, it turns out) wrote TBOTLS as memoir of the way they\nlived on the Long Sun Whorl, and also as a tribute to Silk.  That is, they\ndidn't intend to write a sort of New Testament.\n\nHowever, things are getting bad in the colony.  People in dire straits look\nfor heroes, and people have been reading TBOTLS.  They may be on the cusp\nof a new religion, call it \"Silkism,\" that stands to the Vironese Church as\nChristianity stands to ancient Paganism.  Silkism focuses on a transcendant\ngod, the formerly obscure Outsider, as being above and beyond all the other\ngods.\n\nObviously this impulse, real or imagined, will cause friction with the\nestablished Vironese Church.  The goose chase offers the opportunity to nip\nit all in the bud, by sending the chief architect of Silkism (even though\nhe doesn't recognize it as a new religion) out of sight and mind, or,\nshould he be somehow successful, by bringing (the heretic?) Silk to answer\nquestions (charges?) in New Viron.\n\nJust as the Rajan of Gaon proves useful during times of trouble, up to the\nmoment of victory, when suddenly he must be killed . . . not all that\ndifferent from Apu Punchau, come to think of it . . .\n\nAnother parallel with TBOTNS: Severian writes four volumes about himself,\nthen one volume about his return as something else, something he was\nstriving to become (however unconsciously); Horn writes four volumes about\nSilk, then in OBW it becomes clear that he has somehow incorporated Silk\nwithin himself, Silk has become a part of him, or he has become a part of\nSilk--in any event, he has merged to a degree with his role model.\n\nNot that this leaves the Rajan as a perfected being!\n\n=mantis=\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}