God/Increate in the New Sun

Jeff Wilson · 03 Dec 2010, 01:02 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 19:02:02 -0600 (CST)
Subject: (urth) God/Increate in the New Sun
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W22057344D4A56E9C764D34CF270 at phx.gbl>
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Message-ID: <ebc28c1f5f3f89f5b62404b2aef3185a.squirrel at webmail.prismnet.com>

Lee Berman quoth:
> I think it is possible that Wolfe did not mean for Briah to be a Christian
> universe.
> Briah seems to be a place where there is not just one true God and human
> constructed
> false ones. It seems to be a place where superhuman beings abound who
> sometimes take
> on the trappings of gods and under the right conditions, are worshiped as
> such.

This is no different from Wolfe's stated view of the real world, which he
consideres Christian.

> I'll again mention the final denouement of BotNS which takes place in the
> future of
> the Long and Short Sun stories. After all Severian's efforts and after so
> many people
> killed, I would at least hope for Ushas to show signs of being a Christian
> planet.
> Instead we have a rather gnostic group of four opposite gods, dark and
> light, male
> and female. And a demon swimming around in the ocean.

Again, this is in keeping with Wolfe's view of how human belief has
developed from animistic beginnings through increasingly involved myth and
legend before being ready into Christianity. Keeping the author's stated
beliefs in mind, these are the least speculative aspects of the BOTNS.

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