Wolfe the closet Gnostic. (or, "Gene I hardly gnew ye.")

Kieran Mullen · 24 Jun 2005, 14:33 · from 2005-June.txt.gz

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From: kieran at ou.edu (Kieran Mullen)
Date: Fri Jun 24 14:33:12 2005
Subject: (urth) Wolfe the closet Gnostic.  (or, "Gene I hardly gnew ye.")
Message-ID: <97fae70a9880dd35ac2526b868a0d3ff at ou.edu>



Begin forwarded message:
>

> If Wolfe were determined to avoid the chance of people thinking he was 
> endorsing the
> Gnosticsm then he should have avoided making Silk so appealing or 
> naming his hero
> in The New Sun after a Gnostic sect.
>
> ~ Crush
>

    It is this sort of postmodern meta-analysis that I find most 
annoying.

    First, Gnostic is such a syncretic and malleable tradition that it 
is possible to read it into almost anything in which a powerful ruling 
figure is overthrown by appealing to a more benign, more powerful 
figure.

     Second, Severian's name was chosen 13 years before Silk was 
created.   Do you think that when Wolfe set out to create a character 
that people whose wardrobe fans would emulate at sci-fi cons, he 
intended to write a pro-Gnostic work over a decade later?

     Third, do you think Wolfe, the author of such works as "The 
Detective of Dreams" and "Westwind," would write a pro-Gnostic set of 
novels?

     Fourth, why should having an appealing hero make him necessarily 
pro-Gnostic?   Isn't Silk closer to Moses than to Christ?

     Fifth, name play gets a bit silly.   Silk was common in New 
Testament times, and was called "damask", since it was manufactured in 
Damascus.  No doubt by choosing the name "Silk", Wolfe was making an 
allusion to the role Syria plays in international terrorism.

     Sixth...  Oh well.  You get the point.

       Kieran Mullen

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