Father Inire and the Deluge

CRCulver · 21 Apr 1999, 23:24 · from urth-v0025.mbox · original

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From: CRCulver at aol.com
Subject: Re: (urth) Father Inire and the Deluge
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 19:24:48 EDT
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In a message dated 4/21/99 2:25:20 AM EST, orik at sprint.ca writes:

<< Unless I've forgotten or misread TBONS, which is of course emminently=20
possible, the Hierodules and their masters are not angels or cherubim come=20
down from Heaven;  they are a genetically altered "master" species=20
sufficiently advanced to be able to travel throuh time and space to the nth=20
degree. >>

Well, kind of sort of. In "The Key to the Universe" Severian mentions that=20
the Hieros are the master species, the ones created by man and who escaped =
to=20
Yesod. The Hierodules were "found" by the Hieros and are their servants.=20
Famulimus and Barbatus appear to be Hieros, while I would assume that many =
of=20
the watchers of "Eschatology and Genesis" at the House Absolute were=20
Hierodules.

<<Despite this great power, they are material, and I believe fallible and=20
wrongheaded, creatures, no different from any other "superior" alien specie=
s=20
in science fiction with political or strategic interests in the Terran=20
sphere.>>

I think that the "judge" version of Tzadkiel, analogous to the Archangel=20
Michael, would be certainly be divine. Whether of not he receives=20
communication directly from the Pancreator is one of the more interesting=20
mysteries of _Urth_.

<<They have interfered with Urth's sun for their own purposes (which possib=
ly=20
include hobbling the ability of Urrth's tyrants  -- or more importantly, he=
r=20
extra-solar "guests" -- to wage wars of interstellar conquest>>

Refer to "The Key to the Universe" again. Severian explains that the Hieros=20
are shaping us as they were formed, a payback (but not necessarily negative=
),=20
and the appearance of the New Sun would mean that "at least the earliest=20
operations of this shaping are complete." It means Severian is a puppet, bu=
t=20
there is no such thing as free will when dealing with the Divine, I would=20
guess.

<<"'The Pancreator is infinitely far from us,' the angel said.  'And thus=20
infinitely far from me, though I fly so much higher than you.  I guess at h=
is=20
desires -- no one can do otherwise.'">>

This is preceded in "Eschatology and Genesis" in the dialogue between Gabie=
l=20
and Nod.
Also, there is the story of how the Pancreator was behind a curtain, but wh=
en=20
one peaked behind this curtain, he saw open space, because the Pancreator i=
s=20
infinite (and perhaps thus infinitely remote).
I wonder in what other Wolfe works this idea that God is infinitely remote =
is=20
mentioned.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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