Jordan Interview

Lee Berman · 23 Oct 2011, 20:27 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:27:38 -0400
Subject: (urth) Jordan Interview
Message-ID: <SNT123-W31D2158DC81FCF68427B34CFEE0 at phx.gbl>

>Sergei Soloviev: When Lee says "dark god"  - I have an 
>impression -  he refers to modern mythology, where "dark" means 

>"bad", "light" means "good".

I do not mean this nor do I think Wolfe does. I think Wolfe uses

the Sun Series to recognize that (as in Genesis 1:1) dark is the

necessary precursor to light. Severian's universe is the necessary

precursor to ours. "Good" and "bad" are human judgements. Divine

necessity has no part of it.

I can agree in general that modern Christian religion/mythology casts 

light as good and dark as bad. I suppose my previous post was in 

recognition of this in wondering why, if Wolfe intended the Outsider

to be our OUR GOD, why he made Him solely dark, without even a nod to a

dark/light balance. If the Outsider is supposed to be Jahweh or the God

of the Trinity I'm afraid I find him disguised so completely as to find

him unrecognizable.

I rest on Wolfe's interview statements. Briah is a previous universe to 

ours. A darker one. Severian may be a dark version of our Saviour, the 

Outsider may be a dark precursor to our God.

Origin of Myth. I think keeping this concept in mind helps so much in 

understanding what Wolfe is saying in the Sun series. The Outsider

is specifically identified with Dionysus. Why?

Dionysus is a huge part of our "dark" pre-Christian religion and spiritual

side. Christianity has demonized him over and over, casting his goat aspect

into the classic depiction of Satan, etc. I think Wolfe is trying to say

with this story just what was initially addressed in this post. Dionysus

worship was dark but not necessarily satanic. Dionysus was the proper god

for his time period and place as the Outsider is for Briah.

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