On Jesus in Briah and other dead horses

António Pedro Marques · 30 Dec 2010, 02:53 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: entonio at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?B?QW50w7NuaW8gUGVkcm8gTWFycXVlcw==?=)
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:53:09 +0000
Subject: (urth) On Jesus in Briah and other dead horses
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James Wynn wrote (30-12-2010 02:06):
>   Well, I'm not inclined to squint at the stories to see if they are
> theologically correct, but I did take a stab at this here:
> http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2010-December/019620.html
> (...)
> For example,
> Green noticed that Lara's universe doesn't have ice cubes. Green
> explains that this is because the universes are like strings on a guitar
> tuned to the same note. Pluck one and those next to it vibrate. So the
> parallel universes keep each other in line. Men in Lara's universe where
> black tuxedos to their wedding because they die after sex. Men in
> Green's universe do the same only because the men in Lara's universe do.
>
> So in Severian's cycle, there was a Christian Church because there was
> in _our_ universe. The Jesus mentioned in Silk's Holy Book is a figure
> of myth. Neither Severian nor the Rajan could any more go back in time
> and meet him than you or I could go back in Time and meet Cinderella or
> Jason or Thor.

Unplausible. Again, it's one thing for unconsequential stuff to ripple 
across universes. Quite another for structured ideas to be imported 
wholesale. Grooms may dress in black all they want without fear. People 
don't build churches based on nothing. Myths have a source in real life, 
even if it's only previous myth (something must have established the first).

The Severian's-cycle-echoes-ours can mean that Severian's cycle's Jesus 
wasn't God the Son, or that Severian's cycle's christians failed. The latter 
seems to me the best candidate given the whole 
Urth-is-what-will-become-of-Earth-if-we-don't-take-heed theme. Severian's 
flood becomes God's second chance for Urth's Humanity after Humanity failed.

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