Severian as reverse Christ (or something)

John Watkins · 21 Nov 2008, 21:18 · from 2008-November.txt.gz

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From: john.watkins04 at gmail.com (John Watkins)
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:18:40 -0500
Subject: (urth) Severian as reverse Christ (or something)
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References: <W7358323250311227301220@webmail41>
Message-ID: <93d4039f0811211318i49d24778he33c2a5bda3a90a8 at mail.gmail.com>

>
> I should really try to hammer home that this Severian as Christ thing shouldn't be looked at too literally. Wolfe is playing with cosmology here, but this is not Divine Revelations (which the Bible is purported to be).  We can allow for some ill fits in a metaphor made by one MAN's mind when matched to the "Word of God".  I'd say don't get hung up on disproving it so much, because it offers a lot of meat to chew on when contemplating the story.
>

That's not my point at all.  I really couldn't care less, as a reader,
whether an author indulges in heterodox Christian, or non-Christian,
thought.  However, I think we err if we don't take Wolfe at his word
when he says that he's an orthodox Roman Catholic.  It seems that
we'll learn more about the text if we keep the author's professed
viewpoint about its meaning in mind.

Wolfe has clearly chosen to heap layers of Christological symbols upon
Severian.  He just as clearly does not believe that Severian is
Christ, or that Christ is a non-unique instantiation of the Logos.  So
those symbols mean something else.  I think there are several pretty
obvious possibilities:

1)  Severian is not Christ, but is sort of a cynical statement about
the kind of "salvation" an imperfect, human savior would bring.

2)  Severian is not Christ, but is propped up as a sort of
Christ-figure by the (by this theory, anyway) villianous
Hierogrammates.  He may be either their half-innocent dupe, in which
case he's basically Puzzle, or he may be their willing accomplice, in
which case he's basically the Anti-Christ.

3)  Severian's journey represents the Christian journey--like Christ,
he has "taken up the Cross" on his path to becoming a better man.

4)  Severian is an examination of one of the aspects of Christ, the
mystical wonder-worker, stripped of Christ's other aspects (the
profound moral teaching, the divine lineage, the circle of disciples,
etc.--I name three aspects that I believe are, in some degree, adapted
in Silk.)

Undoubtedly there are many more like this.  Each of these, I think, is
a better theory by which to order the events of the Book of the New
Sun than "Severian is a direct analogue of Christ."

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