Gnosticism & Wolfe (was "traveling north")

Jeff Wilson · 04 Jun 2010, 23:11 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:11:33 -0500
Subject: (urth) Gnosticism & Wolfe (was "traveling north")
In-Reply-To: <4C0932EF.3000205 at gmail.com>
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	<4C0932EF.3000205 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4C098825.5090001 at io.com>

On 6/4/2010 12:07 PM, James Wynn wrote:
> There's nothing inconsistent about incest between the important
> characters of Gnosticism (the influence of Egyptian philosphy and myth
> ensures that). Norea was said in some writings to be the wife and sister
> of Seth, while simultaneously half of a syzygy. That said, who Norea was
> depends on who you are reading. For others, she is the wife of Noah (a
> hostile relationship there --like Sev and Valeria-- since she burned
> down his ark three times). The problem with saying "Valeria must be
> Severian's sister" is that Wolfe so happily plays with the definitions
> of terms. In The Book of the Short Sun, the Rajan calls Jahlee (the
> inhuma bearing, I believe, Chenille's soul) his daughter and his sister.
> So you're not just dealing with the twisted and unintuitive world of
> Gnosticism, but also the twisted worlds of Wolfe where little is as it
> seems.

It's not just Wolfe and Gnosticism; the regular OT has Abraham, his 
"sister" Sarah, and the Pharaoah, plus some "my wife, my sister" action 
in the Song of Songs.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >

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