Funes the Memorious

Lee Berman · 24 Jan 2011, 13:38 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:38:36 -0500
Subject: (urth) Funes the Memorious
Message-ID: <SNT123-W5AD2094AF03F4299E9C8ACFFD0 at phx.gbl>

>Mr.  Thalassocrat: Nice to ponder on what use Wolfe might have made of it in constructing Sev.

Yes, I agree. Good find!. And I think it goes beyond the memory thing. The term "dithyramb" is used. 
And this from the third paragraph: 

>Funes was a precursor of the superman, "an untamed and vernacular Zarathustra"; I do not doubt it, 
>but one must not forget, either, that he was a countryman from the town of Fray Bentos, with certain 
>incurable limitations.

These are direct references to Nietzsche and it would appear that Borges/Wolfe view Funes/Severian as
precursor to the ?bermensch, the superman, but a little too provincial/dumb to realize what he is.

Zarathustra is Nietzsche's term for Zoroaster, the gnostic religious figure with a name meaning something
like "pure star". Nietzsche saw humanity as a transitional form between the apes and the future supermen.
No coincidence that the main theme of the movie 2001-A Space Odyssey is Also Sprach Zarathustra.

Then we have Nietzsche's dichotomy between Apollonian (paternal, male, light, Judeo-Christian, science/order
based) vs. Dionysian (maternal, androgynous, dark, pagan/mystic, individual experience based). This theme seems
repeated over and over in BotNS.

I don't know if the lines of influence of ancient gnostic religion and philosophy are in series or parallel 
through Nietzsche and Borges to Wolfe but they are definitely there. I have not previously seen Nietzsche
noted as a major influence on Wolfe but perhaps it should be considered.

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