Shadow, Chapter X

Jeff Wilson · 14 Nov 2008, 08:10 · from 2008-November.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:10:12 -0600
Subject: (urth) Shadow, Chapter X
In-Reply-To: <W9549421152150771226596550@webmail28>
References: <W9549421152150771226596550@webmail28>
Message-ID: <491D3264.8050304 at io.com>

Son of Witz wrote:
> I'm now convinced that he's steered along almost completely. I take
> it as the hand of God. Dress that up with the characters however you
> want, be they Angels or Aliens or whatever.  He obviously has free
> will, but everything is placed very nicely in his path for him to
> exercise that will.  That's his testing, far more than the testing in
> Yessod.  With that in mind, I don't consider it a flaw of this
> fiction, instead it's the very fabric of this fable.

I'm not sure that I agree, but Sev seems to agree that he has been 
manipulated by forces not unseen but privy to what is unseen, when he 
writes that he has backed into the throne. This suggests to me a hint 
that the general outlook on passing time on Urth has come to resemble 
that of the Homeric Greeks. Where we moderns see ourselves as looking 
forward into the unknown as the head of a marching column of historical 
figures more or less, many writers claim the Hellenes rationalized the 
unseen details future as being hidden behind them as they marveled at 
the slowly growing pageant of glorious deeds and great nations recorded 
in the epics, and perhaps lesser but still noteworthy accomplishments 
passed on by scholars and only "looked forward" to fancy themselves to 
be remembered as part of all that. This goes a bit further on Urth where 
most people can see the past glories of unnumbered ages crammed, 
crumbled, and covered-over willy nilly, hardly leaving any room for them 
to make a mark for posterity.

This literally takes on a new dimension with the backward-living 
hierodules and other Yesodis, who really can look backward into the 
hidden minor details of the the future and adjust things to have Sev 
abruptly back into the throne with no grand foreshadowing or visible 
predestiny perceptible to the humans.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >

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