started my second read of New Sun

Lane Haygood · 15 May 2010, 01:21 · from 2010-May.txt.gz

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From: lhaygood at gmail.com (Lane Haygood)
Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 20:21:50 -0500
Subject: (urth) started my second read of New Sun
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> I think they interfere as little as possible both because they are at base
> moral creatures who know they constantly risk catastrophic changes in
> their "client" civilizations and because of limited resources, as each
> group of islands on Yesod is responsible for an entire galaxy in Briah.
> Tzadkiel needs Severian's coming to confirm when his personal attention
> will be needed and where along the timeline to aim the Fountain, so he is
> available to supervise the other worlds in his teritory.

Interesting theory.

> I think this could be an artifact of the borrowing from Plato; wasn't the
> Hellenic cultural view of time as if they stood by a river looking
> downstream as it carried figures of the past into the distance while those
> of the unknowable future are behind them, only the largest foreshadowed by
> ripples if at all?

Yes; the idea of successive "worlds" with higher levels of existence
is common in many belief systems, but the unique confluence of
Hellenistic philosophy with the emerging Judaic religions (including
some the syncretic ones) was a major development on early
Christianity.  Since learned men in the first few centuries AD
would've studied what we know consider classical Greek philosophy, all
of the Church fathers were well-versed in it, and consequently it has
become something of a part of the Christian folk ideas about heaven
and hell.  But even in other mythic sources (like Norse mythology) we
get the idea of successive levels of reality up and down the world
tree... and Wolfe drew this exact parallel in TWK.

It's a case of nothing new under the sun; really... every "great idea"
we have goes back to these very early ideas.  All we can say is that
out new learnings seem more like clarifications of what we've found
out before. Which of course Plato would agree with and say, "Duh,
modernity.  See what I wrote in the _Meno_?  I got this covered."

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