christ, already

David Stockhoff · 16 Dec 2010, 01:41 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:41:27 -0500
Subject: (urth) christ, already
In-Reply-To: <635563.10431.qm at web37606.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <997798.2239.qm at web84104.mail.mud.yahoo.com>	<E48574B6-AFEB-4B63-9816-03692C5FCE27 at liftingfaces.com>
	<635563.10431.qm at web37606.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4D096E47.8090805 at verizon.net>

It's not terribly different from "Increate." We can guess what that term 
includes but not so easily what it excludes.

On 12/15/2010 6:51 PM, Craig Brewer wrote:
> I get the point about the Outsider being "God" but not "Christ" in the 
> sense that the Outsider didn't deliver the sermon on the mount or 
> actually be the body that died on the cross, etc.
>
> But isn't there a bigger point here that the Outsider is the Outsider. 
> "It" is the "real" God outside of man-made mythology. We can assume 
> that it's ultimately the God of Christianity because of what we know 
> of Wolfe, and, textually, because of its close association with 
> Kypris/love/etc. and because of what *we* know those thematic 
> relationships suggest to non-fictional theology outside of the made-up 
> world in the books.
>
> But, in the book, I always assumed that the real point of having the 
> Outsider be called very deliberately "the Outsider" was that its 
> actual nature remains largely unknown and mysterious, even to Silk 
> after his vision. The books stress how difficult gnosis can be to come 
> to terms with, even after direct revelation. Silk continually 
> misunderstands the nature of the Outsider throughout the books, still 
> trying to understand it through the "dark glass" of Pas' 
> cobbled-together mythology at times, even as he learns how false that 
> mythology actually is. At no point is Silk given a Bible in which he 
> can read the gospels, etc. in any way that makes the identification of 
> the Outsider as God/Holy Spirit/Christ really meaningful within the 
> world of the book.
>
> In Long Sun, the Outsider is the real God, sure, but none of the 
> characters ever really understands what that means in the same way 
> that Wolfe might believe he understands it. That truth remains 
> difficult and distant even after revelation seems to be much the point 
> of the books.
>
> So I'll stick with calling it the Outsider.
>
>


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