a false coin

Lee Berman · 03 Jan 2011, 17:31 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 12:31:58 -0500
Subject: (urth) a false coin
Message-ID: <SNT123-W167073C5BE10896EDFB494CF070 at phx.gbl>

>Marc Aramini: Is Wolfe implying that the fake coin, which he admits in Castle of Days is a 
>symbol of the sun, shaped Sev into something genuine?.....Does that fake coin imply the situation 
>of the sun is a conjuror's trick at best, serving a false master and killing an innocent man to 
>pillage the remains of Urth?  

I think this is a very astute assessment of a symbol. It might disturb some, though.

>David Stockhoff: And I would theorize that nothing is truly fake in Wolfe. This ties to my 
>current thread with Lee and a topic I return to often: all myths are more or less true. All 
>lies contain truth. As fake as Vodalus and the coin and the autarch and the Commonwealth and 
>the games of the Hieros are---all of them, in every sense and on every level---they are also 
>real and true. Or so my theory forces me to conclude. The open question is what that means.

I agree with David but I would add the complementary balance: All truth contains lies. All reality
is partially based on myth and personal bias. Tao/Ouroboros symbol. A bit of evil in all good things
and a bit of good in all evil things.

Thus Severian's godhood and immortality based on the gift of a star from the angels is transitory.
He loses that power as soon as it serves their purpose. His more enduring godhood comes as a gift
from the "demonic" undine.

[p.s. David, I was reminded of an addition to our discussion of "Author as Demiurge": Gene Wolfe's
home address on St. Croix is 666 Saltimbanque St.- the Satanic Performer]

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