Typee, incidentally

Lee Berman · 12 Nov 2010, 21:23 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:23:26 -0500
Subject: (urth) Typee, incidentally
Message-ID: <SNT123-W317D42357303BAF5DEB6A1CF330 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff-However, as far as I can tell this is a very Catholic view---God works 
>in mysterious ways, etc. Wolfe only changes it by giving it a galactic scope and perhaps 
>a greater emphasis. Everyone needs to read Boethius.

I don't know for sure. I guess it does seem like Protestant sects have more of the rants
against Satan and all that. But there is more tradition of demonology, angels and saints
and such in Catholocism. That inherent polytheism might make it a better fit among the less 
educated, less developed populations of the world than the simple dualistic Protestant sects?

Seems like maybe the Catholic Church is hierarchical. The peons are comfortable with their
folk sense of good and evil but rely on "mysterious ways" or "there's a reason for everything"
homilies when the real world doesn't cooperate. The more educated, higher-ups in the church seem 
more willing (among themselves) to acknowledge the purpose of evil. Maybe some even decide that
they themselves are wise enough to partake in evil to do God's Will (or have I been watching too 
many Dan Brown movies? ;- ) )

I hadn't heard of Boethius (surely I am more like "everyone" in this?). But before I looked
him up I had a suspicion he might fall into what might be called "gnostic" philosophical 
tradition that I am currently trying (with difficulty) to comprehend to further my understanding
of BotNS. Not sure, but I think my suspicion was right about the B dude.

Anyway, it may be that part of Wolfe's philosophy that polytheistic religions allow for a more
complex and nuanced understanding of good and evil than these simple monotheistic religions which 
currently dominate the earth. I'm starting to see this principle across the whole Sun series.

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