(no subject)

Lee Berman · 17 Dec 2010, 09:03 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:03:09 -0500
Subject: (urth) (no subject)
Message-ID: <SNT123-W1974E5836F49546AB43556CF160 at phx.gbl>

In a previous discussion of this topic I found it a pretty compelling conclusion that
if Briah is Christian and Urth is Earth in the future then either:

1. God has broken his Covenant with humanity to never again send a Flood.

or

2. Severian, Tzadkiel and the White Fountain are (somehow) entirely secular and have nothing
to do with God.

or maybe..

3. Severian and everyone around him are not really humans so God was allowed to Flood earth again.

I have been assuming everyone here is familiar with Gene WOlfe's words in the James Jordan interview:

>JJ: This universe that you set in Briah, or part of it--is that our universe? Or is that a universe that 
>resurrected saints have set up in the world to come as part of the cities that they made?

>GW: No. I thought of it as a long past universe. Something that we are repeating rather than something that 
>we are.

I have heard all the arguments on both sides, and I am not one who thinks an author always has the final word on 
interpretation of his own work. I AM a person who thinks human beings very rarely just sort through
all existing evidence to come to their conclusions. Especially in today's complex world, there is just too
much contradictory evidence on both sides of any controversial issue.

Instead what we do is start with a conclusion and then sift through the evidence to find support for it and
try our best to ignore or invalidate all evidence to the contrary that we encounter.

So for me, the time has come to stop the evidence war on this and each ask ourselves about the personal reasons 
which have led us to the conclusion we have regarding Christianity in the Sun series.

For me, it was simply the Gene Wolfe quote. Previous to finding it, I hadn't considered the anti-Flood covenant
or the Norse meaning of "Urth" or any of the other evidence. Since I am not a Christian or religious, it didn't 
bother me to think that Severian and the story I treasure was not in a Judeo-Christian universe. I was willing to
take Gene Wolfe at his word. I'm not too political but I am rabidly anti-torture and generally averse to 
parasitic exploitation of humans by other humans in the manner of chatelaines-khaibits. So, distancing myself
from Urth isn't so difficult at all, for me.

I think there are perfectly valid personal reasons for one to perfer the Christian interpretation of Briah and Urth.
I'd be interested in hearing a bit of self-analysis from whomever is willing to share.

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