Abaia and the undines

Craig Brewer · 06 Dec 2008, 06:35 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: cnbrewer at yahoo.com (Craig Brewer)
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 22:35:06 -0800 (PST)
Subject: (urth) Abaia and the undines
References: <W217641043543611228522617@webmail32>
	<50CD1F046692403FB2C540234BD53C56@GATEWAY>
Message-ID: <319891.68655.qm at web37607.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

> Does anyone thing a Believer in Christ would write a story this full of Christian
> symbolism just to yank the rug out from under you and say "sucker, you're faith is all a lie"?

There's an interview where Wolfe says that he was obviously concerned with "working out" some of his beliefs as a Catholic. But I don't see why "working out" can't mean giving a fictional account of, say, a monstrous version of what you believe in order to clarify it by contrast. The alzabo/eucharist is a case in point: there we're given an incredibly ambiguous version of communion which is an ongoing "what if" take on communion throughout the whole book: "what if" it were literally becoming another (non-divine) person? In that case, Severian achieves a union with Thecla he never could otherwise, but it's also something he struggles with throughout the books, suffering identity crises, revulsion at the corruption of traditional "union" (as well as simple disgust towards cannibalism), etc. In fact, to me, so much of the emotional impact of Severian's Thecla-ness comes as a result of its being a corruption of a more holy kind of communion. There's a
 beautiful tragedy inherent in it.

So why couldn't New Sun be a story of a corrupted second coming? Why couldn't it be a story about all the ugliness inherent when ultimately worldly, material  powers try to act out a sacred myth? To me, that makes Severian the Sleeper seem particularly compelling: the Conciliator's true mediation is still sleeping, waiting for further and better expressions/incarnations in later times, other words, etc. After all...didn't "Wolfe" find this "manuscript" as if it was written in our "far" past. Maybe telling a story now about a Christ figure that didn't live up to Christ makes the real Christ all the more wonderful?

Maybe. I'm not convinced that any of that's what IS going on, but I think it's certainly a reasonable option.

Just because Wolfe professes his faith openly doesn't restrict his freedom to write imaginative fiction that, in the end, may not line up with doctrine. In fact, as someone who apparently seems like an very thoughtful and inquisitive believer, I wouldn't be surprised if much of his fiction is as much exploratory as it is orthodox.

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