Resurrections

Jeff Wilson · 30 Jul 2010, 18:07 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:07:04 -0500
Subject: (urth) Resurrections
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W53BE739444324D4B5D835CFAA0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W53BE739444324D4B5D835CFAA0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4C5314C8.9000104 at io.com>

On 7/30/2010 11:32 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
>
>> Jeff Wilson- I get the sense that the author is trying to convey that the various
>> "kinds of resurrection" are a mortal projection; there is only one
>> source of the gift of life and that is the grace of the Increate. Then
>> there are people who presume to decide that the Increate hasn't given
>> them enough and will try to get more some other way, rather than living
>> and sharing so that what they've been given *is* enough. This kind of
>> substituion of one's judgment for that of the Increate is the first step
>> on the dark path that eventually leads the likes of Typhon and Ceryx to
>> airs of godhood, the way Vodalus presumes to substitute himself for the
>> Autarch.
>
> So, why doesn't Wolfe have Severian reject the Autarch's pharmicon at the
> last second and have him find the true, Increate-given, path toward becoming
> the New Sun and Conciliator? Are we to conclude that Urth itself has an
> allotted lifespan and it has no right to be reborn and all who assist Severian
> in this task are as sorcerous and evil as Vodalus and the Old Leech and others
> who seek artificially extended life?

If there was a right to life from the Increate, it wouldn't be a gift, 
and there would be no grace in it.

No one's life is being artificially extended by the alzabo; the memory 
of the Autarch shares Severian, but the Autarch himself is dead. The 
alzabo eaters who are said to do it because they want more life than 
they have are projecting, as I wrote before. If Sevrian's life is 
bettered in some way by the memories he has ingested, that is no more 
condemnable than one's life being enriched by learning.  The 
reprenhesible thing about it is that it may be done in violation of the 
person's will, and that it involves eating part of a person. But babes 
feed from their mother, and a pelican that wounds her breast to feed her 
chicks is held up as a sign of loyalty and service, and Christians are 
enjoined to eat and drink of the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ.

So if the Increate's representative on Urth says, "I call upon you to 
eat my brain for the good all mankind," his good and faithful servant 
who by a providence already has experience doing this sort of thing 
correctly says, "Yes, sir!"

Or that's the way I see it.

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

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