UotNS and how it screws with your head

John Watkins · 13 Jul 2010, 17:20 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: john.watkins04 at gmail.com (John Watkins)
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:20:06 -0400
Subject: (urth) UotNS and how it screws with your head
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W3648570337046E2ADD28E1CFB90 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W3648570337046E2ADD28E1CFB90 at phx.gbl>
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On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> Nice post John. My thinking has leaned in the same direction, heavily
> influenced
> by the (surprisingly) hard SF, (shockingly) foresighted 1972 book, The Gods
> Themselves,
> by Asimov. I don't feel it is considered a very seminal work though it did
> win the Hugo
> and Nebula.  Surely Wolfe read it?
>
> I assume so...for the record, it's my favorite Asimov book by a fair
margin.  Second is The End of Eternity.



> As you say, Severian's (and Apheta's?) creation
> was a White Fountain in Briah. But it was a black hole they created in
> Yesod
> (no snarky comments please). Was Yesod (or maybe Sol) left with a black
> hole that they
> will need to repair?
>
I don't know.  Maybe they really have divine tech that allowed them to, er
tap...that is, to ritualistically perform...yeah.  There's not term for it
that won't lead to jokes.  But conceivably (haha!) they circumvented
creating a black hole in Yesod by opening a direct pipeline to God.  Or just
to a higher universe, and created a black hole there and a fountian that
goes through Yesod to Briah.



>
> We have heard the black hole in Urth's sun was created as a punishment. But
> could we
> infer that it (also) was created when a nastier version of Severian
> travelled to Briah
> to get a white fountain to bring back and heal the black hole for a nastier
> version of
> Urth in Abbadon?
>
> I think it's speculation either way, isn't it?  If the black hole is a
biproduct of creating a white fountain, wouldn't the same apply in reverse,
so that maybe the Hierogrammates or whoever created a white fountain in
Abbadon as a biproduct of punishing Urth?



>
> Wolfe is usually portrayed as a devout Catholic but, given his writing, I
> have serious
> doubts whether he has the same view of grace and the "God Is Love" stuff
> that most
> Christians have or are supposed to have. He really seems to have a dark and
> pessimistic
> side which comes out in pretty much all his work. Where, in his work, is
> the shining,
> uncompromised  redemption we must (as christians) eventually, somehow
> achieve? Is he
> saving that for his last novel maybe?
>

I think Wolfe, like Tolkien, has a dark view of the world and of human
nature.  The light of God, as he writes of the Claw, is "the only light we
have"--the rest is darkness, Tolkien's "long defeat."  I think Wolfe would
say that the shining redemption is waiting in the next world if it's
anywhere.



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