Dionysus, the Mausoleum

Lee Berman · 21 Dec 2010, 15:35 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:35:14 -0500
Subject: (urth) Dionysus, the Mausoleum
Message-ID: <SNT123-W40F9EE4BC50390F3B7FC5FCF1A0 at phx.gbl>

>Marc Aramini: Lee, just wanted to point out that in the snipets I quoted below, as far as 
>New Sun is concerned, it is very hard to look beneath to see anything beneficial or benevolent 
>in Typhon's motives because of the very clear Satan tempting Jesus in the desert imagery.   
>......The clear parallel is that if Sev failed here, he fails forever.

Marc, I understand your perspective (I think). Mine differs only in being open to some alternate
religious interpretations. The Pelerine admonishes Severian for viewing ongoing events simply as
a battle between good and evil. I suspect the admonition is also for us readers.

I think this came up earlier in a discussion with Antonio: If God is omniscient and omnipotent and 
he has created the universe(s) from beginning to end in one act, then He has no choices. Everything
is set, like a play. We humans, not being omniscient or omnipotent, feel we have free will and choices
and from our perspective we do.

But, if we could stretch our brains a little and get a teeny glimpse of God's plan from His perspective
we would see that we are players on a stage, performing in set pieces exactly as God has written our roles.
There is no "if Sev failed". He didn't. He won't. He cannot. So it is written, So it shall be done.

In life we must also play our roles.  We try to make good choices and defy Satan on a daily basis. But in 
our glimpses of the infinite, if we are capable of them,  we can realize that Satan (Lucifer, David Stockton?) 
is a creation of God and thus not inherently "evil" but rather an actor, *faithfully* playing his assigned role.

(I think the recently translated Gospel of Judas provides an eerie parallel to this. It didn't impact the Sun
series but I would be very interested in Gene Wolfe's opinion of it. I suspect he would nod, sagely.)

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