Hello, I'm a Newb

David Duffy · 30 Jun 2010, 23:29 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: davidD at qimr.edu.au (David Duffy)
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010 09:29:14 +1000 (EST)
Subject: (urth) Hello, I'm a Newb
In-Reply-To: <999655.47117.qm at web37906.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <mailman.56895.1277927766.5093.urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net>
	<999655.47117.qm at web37906.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.1007010829330.19840 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>

On Wed, 30 Jun 2010, Nicholas Jost wrote:

Welcome, Nicholas!

> Since Gene Wolfe was mentioned in an article appearing in First Things recently
> and was recommended through a friend I decided to pick up some of his books.  I
> read "An Evil Guest" first, and once I realized I had missed pretty much the
> whole book,

Perhaps not the best place to start ;)

> I picked up the New Sun series (including the fifth book) and
> promised I would pay more attention.  I have read some of the archive and the
> notes on the Gene Wolfe Wiki (which I _think_ is maintained by one of you
> folks?).

Yes.

>
> I am now going to add my entirely wild musings to the mix.
>
> 1.) Is Severian Albion?  He becomes the "Storm God" in the end and the servitors
> of Albion also "serve" him especially when he is saved.

> 2.) Is he the same Storm God as is in an "Evil Guest"?  If they both exist on
> the same timeline then "An Evil Guest" would be well within the period in which
> the new sun is in transit (I'm assuming Apu is pre-colonial South American).

Almost certainly not.  Either it is well in our future, or in a different 
(cycle of the) universe.  Severian muses that racial type (and I guess 
culture) is strongly determined by climate/geography, so that his future 
South America has ended up with similar cultures.  Plus the conceit that 
he has translated future cultures into modern day equivalents: someone 
recently commented on the frisson encountered realising Frodo is actually 
Froda, similar to realizing what destriers look like, or what "petrol" is 
in Press's _Soldiers of Paradise_.

> 3.) Has anyone else had difficulty explaining the plot to his aged grandmother
> and consciously skipped over the Dorcas character?

It hasn't come up ;) but the aged grandmother might quite like the idea.

> 4.) Is Severian a proto(/post)-Christian (not -like) figure in a Mormon
> universe?  That is it seems to have an endless hierarchy of gods.  The concept
> of an "uncreate" blows this theory but the robots seem to have an endless
> hierarchy topped (roughly) by a race.  Am I missing something?

The fact that the setting is bang-gnab cyclical universes, so any type of 
christian model has to handle multiple incarnations etc.  That in early 
Western thought, and in SF, there is plenty of room in the great chain for 
higher beings than humankind.  The Increate may be outside all these, like 
Stapledon, but Wolfe implies he may be poking around.  In Stapledon's 
setup, there is evolution from universe to universe, so one could 
postulate less optimal Christs in earlier iterations.  After saying that, 
Wolfe has explicitly said that Severian is -like.

This kind of stuff has been hashed over endlessly on this list and in a 
couple of books. Wolfe is deliberately ambiguous - not to mention that 
_UotNS_ may represent an (some say unhappy) evolution of ideas.  The Long 
Sun books are (more) Gnostic at a miniature scale, which may be a case of 
_as above, so below_.  But the Short Sun books are ...revisionist.

Basically, it comes down to whether you think BotNS has a happy ending or 
not.  You might reread _the Cock, the Angel and the Eagle_.  That is, the 
Hieros are doing as best as they can.

Cheers, David.

-- 
| David Duffy (MBBS PhD)                                         ,-_|\
| email: davidD at qimr.edu.au  ph: INT+61+7+3362-0217 fax: -0101  /     *
| Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research   \_,-._/
| 300 Herston Rd, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia  GPG 4D0B994A v

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