AEG only semi-spoilish

John Watkins · 20 Nov 2008, 15:08 · from 2008-November.txt.gz

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From: john.watkins04 at gmail.com (John Watkins)
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:08:25 -0500
Subject: (urth) AEG only semi-spoilish
In-Reply-To: <49255D38.90703 at gmail.com>
References: <20081120100112.4675F48043 at diego.dreamhost.com>
	<49255D38.90703 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <93d4039f0811200708h35751259v3fa75b0beb75462c at mail.gmail.com>

On 11/20/08, Dave Tallman <davetallman at msn.com> wrote:
> Mo Holkar wrote:
> There is Christianity in Wolfe's future world. Cassie encounters it through
> Margaret (especially in her song "Walk in the Reign") and in her role as
> Mariah Brownlea. Her star-power causes her roles to become real to her, so I
> believe she gets in touch with real spirituality through these songs and
> roles. It's like the concept of "act as if" in 12-step programs. She begins
> to get ideas like "add nothing to God and you get good."
>

That "act as if" stuff seems to be a huge part of all of Wolfe's
books.  Wolfe is always working with the idea that you are the thing
you do, that we freely choose our actions and that we're transformed
by them.

I've argued this before, but it's most explicit in the Long Sun when
it's explained that a demon can't imitate a god--if it does, it will
be absorbed into the god.  So we see Kypris, a woman's personality
masquerading as a love-goddess, becoming an instrument of the
Outsider, the true God of Love, and we see the significance of Horn's
imitations of Silk.

I guess it's also the point of The Wizard Knight and Pirate Freedom.
The protagonists of each make a choice about who they want to be in
the new world they find themselves in, and both succeed.

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