An Old mystery ...

David Stockhoff · 04 Dec 2008, 18:50 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:50:16 -0500
Subject: (urth) An Old mystery ...
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John---

That's exactly right, as far as I'm concerned. Severian is a kind of apocalyptic tattooed biker Jesus! (There's an inspiration for the graphic novel.)

Of course this doesn't mean Pelagianism necessarily has to be swallowed whole, and I wouldn't even know if it was or not. But your comment does make me wonder whether Severian really does participate in an atonement at all. He is merely molded, judged, and cast aside; his life is not his own but he does live---quite a bit.

And more than he would have if he had been allowed to drown in Gyoll because no subtle angels desired that his life continue. He's more of a faery consort, chosen, taken, and spat back to Urth a generation later. 

Per the previous thread, he seems more connected to the Second Coming and Judgment as "Urth's executioner" than to a sacrificed Sun God. His deaths and resurrections are more plot puzzles than they are climaxes---exactly as you say.

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Message: 5
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 13:19:33 -0500
From: "John Watkins" <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) An Old mystery ...
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
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	<93d4039f0812041019x4c1e4341i4f2bb296502b0173 at mail.gmail.com>
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This thread is fascinating.

Witz is pretty sure that Severian is Jesus because he's bringing about an
apocatastatis (even if this isn't quite a fair description of the plot of
Urth, and even if apocatastasis is a Christian heresy.)

David is convinced that Severian is more like a Pelagian idea of Jesus, even
though Severian is a pretty Bad Example for how to live one's life.

The two conceptions of Jesus don't really have much in common--Pelagius's
Moral Teacher/Good Example is fundamentally NOT engaged in some kind of
mystical atonement.

As for me, I will continue to beat the drum that Severian is supposed to
evoke Christ so as to draw a contrast.  His apocastastatis is a puny one,
his moral example is poor, he has no Crucifixion.

But he does heal people, and he fits the Messiah archetype better than many
of the other thousand faces.

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