Gnosticism in BotNS?

David Stockhoff · 09 Apr 2009, 17:51 · from 2009-April.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:51:00 -0400
Subject: (urth) Gnosticism in BotNS?
In-Reply-To: <mailman.10625.1239291967.12296.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
References: <mailman.10625.1239291967.12296.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
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I was just going to comment that the term could simply be interpreted as "relating to hidden knowledge," or even just "knowledge," since most knowledge in Severian's world seems to be hidden. But "occult" is even better.

Which leaves open the question "what knowledge"?

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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 00:31:42 -0400
From: John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Gnosticism in BotNS?
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
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	<93d4039f0904082131u50ae9013u7448738c3903322d at mail.gmail.com>
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Remember, it's Wolfe's future vocabulary.  "Gnostic" here, at least to
Severian, is probably synonymous with "occult"--the symbols are mysterious,
understood or intelligible only to an initiated few.

Of course, *Wolfe *probably wants to evoke Gnosticism even though Severian
has no such thought.

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 11:24 PM, Lane Haygood <lhaygood at gmail.com> wrote:

> Which makes one wonder where Severian learned a word like "gnostic,"
> since his world seems to be rather unitary in terms of religious
> diversity.

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