TWK: 7 world cosmology

Chris · 15 Dec 2005, 18:46 · from 2005-December.txt.gz

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From: rasputin_ at hotmail.com (Chris)
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 18:46:59 +0000
Subject: (urth) TWK: 7 world cosmology
In-Reply-To: <000a01c60156$5ccea6a0$413ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>
Message-ID: <BAY102-F11DA309EE1E60ECB0887DA863B0 at phx.gbl>

I agree with Roy's take on the purported Gnosticism in TWK. If this is being 
based off of the scene with the Most Low God where he claims that if you saw 
his back you would see the Most High God, I think that it is clear that he 
is lying in that scene.

The cosmology seems to be much more of a synthesis of Norse mythology with a 
sort of qabbalism.

>I have to quibble with the Gnostic view of the cosmology of TWK that
>hartshorn and others have championed. I don't see it that way because I
>don't think it satisfies the most important criterion.
>
>I agree that the Sun Cycle can (perhaps should) be viewed as Gnostic. The
>Increate, aka the Outsider, is known of and referred to by the authors of
>the several manuscripts concerned. That is not the case, however, with 
>Art's
>manuscript. In the Seven World cosmology, the deity at the top of the heap,
>in Elysion, is labeled variously as the High God, the Highest God and the
>Most High God, but they all refer to the same entity. There is no mention,
>direct or otherwise that I am aware of in TWK, of any overarching "one true
>God" outside of or otherwise apart from the Seven Worlds.
>
>In the absence of any contravening internal evidence, I see no reason to
>believe that "Highest God" and "Most High God" mean anything other than 
>what
>normal superlative usage would imply. MHG cannot mean second fiddle, cannot
>refer to the Demiurge.
>
>Able isn't very smart; I don't think he has the guile, even if he had a
>motive, to deceive his brother by writing him a letter in which he
>deliberately concealed his knowledge of the true creation and operation of
>the universe, if he thought or had reason to believe that it was something
>other than what he reported it to be, the Seven World cosmology. I don't
>think Able qualifies as another of Wolfe's unreliable narrators, at least
>not in the sense that he had something to hide. His narrative omissions are
>due primarily to a lack of discernment. And no other character in the story
>gives the reader any cause to believe that there is any deity outside the
>Seven Worlds.
>
>On a more practical level, I just can't see Michael as working for the
>Demiurge. And the entire notion of upward spiritual migration loses its
>appeal if it brings people closer to the Demiurge. If the "one true God"
>isn't running the Seven World cosmology, what hope have the people of
>Mythgarthr for salvation of any sort, spiritual betterment, transcendent
>love (Able for Disiri), or any of the other finer, higher sentiments and
>aspirations commonly associated with 'true believers'?
>
>-Roy
>
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