Lame Protagonists

James B. Jordan · 15 Jun 2011, 20:17 · from 2011-June.txt.gz

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From: jbjordan4 at cox.net (James B. Jordan)
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:17:03 -0500
Subject: (urth) Lame Protagonists
In-Reply-To: <9bf37.30e14637.3b2a6b1c at aol.com>
References: <9bf37.30e14637.3b2a6b1c at aol.com>
Message-ID: <20110615201706.QVX32549.eastrmfepo201.cox.net at eastrmimpo02.cox.net>

IIRC it's also in The Hero as Werewolf.

JBJordan

At 03:07 PM 6/15/2011, you wrote:
>In a message dated 6/15/2011 2:41:10 P.M. Central Daylight Time, 
>kierkegaurdian at gmail.com writes:
>
> > I just finished Peace (which was absolutely wonderful) and
> > am now reading the last half of The Book of the Long Sun.
> > I noticed when reading Peace, one short sentence in which
> > the narrator references his bad leg, which is dragging
> > behind him.  Of course, Severian is famously lame, and
> > for the larger portion of Long Sun, Patera Silk has a
> > wounded leg that is mentioned several times.  I was
> > wondering what people thought the significance is, and
> > if there were other protagonists in Wolfe novels who
> > are lame.
>
>My guess, without looking at it closely, would be that Wolfe might 
>have Genesis 3 in mind.  In God's curse on the serpent, we read that 
>he will impose enmity between the serpent and the woman and between 
>the serpent's seed (offspring) and the woman's seed (offspring), an 
>enmity which will culminate this way: "He will bruise/crush your 
>head and you will bruise/crush his heel."
>
>That verse is often called the protoevangelium, because it is seen 
>by Christians as referring to Jesus' death on the cross, whereby he 
>also crushed the head of the serpent (Satan).  The cross is the 
>crushing/bruising of Jesus' heel, the serpent's strike at Jesus, 
>which results in Jesus' death ... but that death isn't final, and in 
>the serpent's striking at Jesus, the serpent ends up with his own 
>head crushed.
>
>Moreover, Paul applies that promise to the whole church in Romans 16 
>when he promises the church in Rome that "the God of peace will 
>crush Satan under your feet shortly."  So it is not just that Jesus 
>crushes the serpent's head.  It is also that God crushes the serpent 
>(Satan) under the feet of the church.  And if that's the case, then 
>it's not surprising that in crushing the serpent, the church also 
>sustains a foot wound.
>
>So perhaps there's some connection between the lameness of these 
>characters and the promise in Genesis 3.  But I wonder if there 
>isn't perhaps also a connection with the Jacob narrative: When Jacob 
>wrestles the Angel, who turns out to be YHWH himself, he learns that 
>all of his wrestling with man throughout his life (Isaac, Esau, 
>Laban) has actually been wrestling with God ... and that in that 
>wrestling, far from losing, he has actually been winning.  Now, 
>wrestling with the Angel, he is winning again.  But the Angel simply 
>touches Jacob's hip and the result is that Jacob limps for the rest 
>of his life.  That limp, though a weakness, is not a sign of his 
>loss but of his victory.  He is now Israel, the one who wrestles 
>with God and prevails.  And maybe these Wolfean characters are to be 
>viewed as Jacobs, as those who are wrestling with God.
>
>I'll let others carry these thoughts further if they wish.  (By the 
>way, this sort of imagery is also present, even more strongly, in 
>the works of Tim Powers.  How many of Powers' characters are wounded 
>in their heads, hands, and feet in the course of the story?)
>
>John
>
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James B. Jordan
Director, Biblical Horizons
Box 1096
Niceville, FL 32588
http://www.biblicalhorizons.com 
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