What's So Great About Ushas?

Gwern Branwen · 21 Jul 2008, 14:52 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:52:32 -0400
Subject: (urth) What's So Great About Ushas?
In-Reply-To: <93d4039f0807201351k44f0a010wb901a263eda02824 at mail.gmail.com>
References: <BAY103-W30FE57508D9A4CA0559190D78B0 at phx.gbl>
	<93d4039f0807201351k44f0a010wb901a263eda02824 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <20080721145232.GA32211@craft>

On 2008.07.20 16:51:26 -0400, John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com> scribbled 6.5K characters:
...
> Here's another way to put my point.  When a group of beings claim to
> be angels, shouldn't the burden of proof be on them?  Especially when
> they concede that:
>
> 1)  They are artificial lifeforms created/bred by humans
> 2)  They are not in direct contact with God
> 3)  They are not eternal
> 4)  They appear to exercise free will
> 5)  They, in fact, appear to possess none of the qualities accorded to
> angels by Roman Catholic theologians (check out Thomas Aquinas on the
> topic) except time-travel, a degree of immortality, and a mysterious
> agenda.
>
> In fact, if I called Dan Simmons's character, the Shrike, a name
> ending in "-el" it would be just as good a match for an angel as
> Tzadkiel.  And Simmons is Roman Catholic, so, by your argument, that
> fact that the Shrike spends most of the first Hyperion book butchering
> people isn't a sign that he's not an angel.  I like this new theory.
> It puts Hyperion in a fun and entertaining new light.  The Shrike
> Church is actually doing the will of God.

Well, actually, since you brought it up...

I always understood the Shrike Church as doing the will of the Human God/FAI in the Cantos. After all, the whole sequence of events leading up to the events at the Time Tombs in _The Fall of Hyperion_ couldn't've occurred without the Shrike Church. (To cite just one of many examples, Brawne Lamia probably wouldn't've reached the Tombs alive if not the good agencies of the Shrike Church).

The Shrike itself is more ambiguous of course, but the only interpretation I've seen that makes sense is that there are 2 or 3 Time Tombs each assigning the Shrike tasks (or 2 or 3 different Shrikes); no doubt you could try to shoehorn that into an angel/demon framework, but given that Simmons constantly invokes Teilhard de Chardin's heresies, any attempt at making Cantos theology orthodox is doomed. :)

--
gwern
Cornflower N Dateline Z-200 chosen SURSAT Unit spies DST GII
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