lupine crisis of faith

Lee Berman · 29 Dec 2010, 19:10 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 14:10:38 -0500
Subject: (urth) lupine crisis of faith
Message-ID: <SNT123-W616D09475D3B0D41FAB358CF020 at phx.gbl>

I think I'm currently having a disturbing crisis of faith and I think Marc Aramini
is mostly to blame (heh). I am not much of a fan of horror stories. I can take a short 
story or a movie because there is a short recovery time but horror novels which end badly are
a bit disturbing. I like being happy and optimistic! Long ago I was both awestruck and disturbed
after reading the novel 5HoC but I gave Gene Wolfe another chance due to his genius but
also hoping he might get a bit more positive. I thought BotNS and Short Sun ended on sort of
a positive note. Now I'm not so sure.

I'd recently noticed that the end of UotNS, while sunny, is pretty gnostic in its world-
view with four paired opposites for gods and a demon in the ocean. Now I have Marc suggesting 
that Urth/Ushas has a connection (urban or planetary) to that hellish horror called Green.

Also someone's recent haunting question: "Who says the Megatherians were killed on Ushas?". 

Who indeed. Just a little common sense should tell me that earth-bound, immortal Megatherians
would welcome Ushas and be mortally fearful of the future of ice, the one thing that could
trap them for eternity.

If Wolfe was truly trying to imply that the Ragnarok future was a bad one, I would think he
would include a small hint of it to be found in Master Ash. But nope. The guy is completely,
and entirely a cool and righteous dude. 

Then we have the androgynous Green Man who represents the Ushas future.  In their first meeting 
the Green Man describes himself as: "A great seer, a great liar, like every man whose foot is in 
a trap.".  Should we believe anything else he says about himself? When someone tells us they are
a liar we should not believe them any further. But in this case we end up doing so, anyway.

Later,

>The green man threw back his head and laughed. Much later I was to hear the sound the alzabo makes 
>as it ranges the snow-swept tablelands of the high country; its laughter is horrible, but the green 
>man?s was more terrible, and I drew away from him. ?You?re not a human being,? I said. ?Not now, if 
>you ever were.?

Why would Wolfe include this passage? Worse than the alzabo! Why??? I'm afraid I now know.

More and more I am fearing that I have been duped for years into enjoying a horror series and cheering 
for the genocide of humanity and a finale in which demonic evil triumphs. (likewise the swarm of Inhumi 
that attack the wedding on Blue at the end of RttW does not bode well).

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