What's So Great About Ushas?

b sharp · 06 Jun 2008, 04:11 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: bsharporflat at hotmail.com (b sharp)
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:11:41 -0400
Subject: (urth) What's So Great About Ushas?
Message-ID: <BAY103-W15CA5F0DDCE7B1D290387CD7B70 at phx.gbl>

In my post I discuss something of an ethical stance which seems to be presented in a book by
Gene Wolfe. I certainly didn't mean to presume to say this reflects Gene Wolfe's personal 
philosophy. It might, I suppose, but I consider that irrelevant. He is an author and we are 
readers and my interpretations are meant to be literary not personal (for him or me).

I'd like to consider a certain passage from Sword of the Lictor.  While wandering in the mountains, 
Severian seems to be pondering what a human utopian planet would be like and consders a place:

> "in which all the people, knowing themselves  descended from a single pair of colonists, treated 
>one another as brothers and sisters"

At first blush this statement seems to me to reek of potential racism.  But perhaps it could be 
seen as a call to embrace the Adam and Eve story as a basis for human respect and caring. 
It certainly foreshadows Ushas.

>"worlds where there was no currency but honor, so that everyone worked in order that he might
>be entitled to associate himself with some man or woman who had saved the community"

I dunno, sounds a bit like a "Vote For John McCain!" slogan. And might support the political/
social philosophy that a vote for a war hero like McCain might entail.

>"worlds in which the long war between mankind and the beasts was pursued no more" with a
>solution for the problem of how, "people who would kill no sentient animal might be shod and fed".

This seems to tie into the Green Man and supports Dave Tallman's idea that Ushas is a place of 
peace and justice for the entire ecosystem, not just humanity.

Interesting that Dave sees the hole in the sun as a mere side effect of Typhon's interstellar war. Others 
see it as a deliberate hiero punishment for humanity, carrying with it the seed of salvation through the 
New Sun.

Interesting that John Smith sees genocide as a tactic reserved for Nazis and the Old Testament 
(Jewish) God. Interesting bedfellows to say the least.

I like Eric Ortlund's observation that Severian is told he could view but not enter The Garden...I think
this ties in with the Robert, Marie and Isangoma scene with the reading about Mt. Nebo.  Borsky thinks
that refers to Father Inire as a Moses figure, allowed to see but not enter the Promised Land. But
perhaps Severian, in his less than conscious creation of Ushas but inability to participate in humanity's 
future, genetically, is a much better candidate as a Moses figure.  Also, like Moses, Severian seems to be a 
conduit for God's power without really understanding, himself, how it works.

I think Peter Wright, in Attending Daedalus, considers the angel-like hierogrammates to be evil, 
manipulative bastards torturing the human race for their own selfish ends. But isn't Wright an
 atheist/socialist?  

If Wolfe is a religious person of Christian persuasion, as he appears to be in interviews, I'd guess
(if I must guess) that his moral intentions regarding the hieros are that human morality 
cannot be used to judge God and angels, only ourselves. But we must trust that the Divine Plan, 
no matter how terrible it may seem at a given instant in time will make things come out right in the
end. Go through Hell to get to Heaven?

-bsharp
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