Like a good Neigbor

Lee Berman · 23 Nov 2011, 15:53 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:53:30 -0500
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neigbor
Message-ID: <SNT123-W51A1E17B78AE866D34C61ECFC90 at phx.gbl>

>Marc Aramini: Well, my problem with this assessment of Silk is that 
>he has no real power to heal the sick and the dying, as Severian 
>occasionally showed.  He can only spiritually abet them - he seems 
>much more like an individual who might become a saint to me than a 
>Jesus.  Sergei seems right on the money on that one.

Yes. (sorry for my previous disagreement Sergei. I misread your post).

Severian is more like Jesus with his healing and his resurrection. Silk
is more like a saint and he does die. (I guess he is resurrected too, but
not in a Jesus- or Severian-type way).

Moreover, Silk is unequivocally a "nice guy" like a saint (Francis of Assisi?)
while Severian has much more of an edge to him, like Jesus who was not really
a "nice guy". Jesus was sarcastic and harsh in his criticisms, in a way Silk
would never be. Plus Jesus used a whip on people to punish them, a comparison
Wolfe has made for Jesus explicitly to Severian, in an interview.

>David Stockhoff: Is it impossible to equate a clone with a son? After all, if 
>you or I cloned ourselves, we would raise the result as a son. All we'd be doing 
>is cutting out the middle, er, middlewoman (at least her genetic contribution).

Which is exactly what happens in 5HoC. It has been noted before but again I'll say 
that every major theme in 5HoC is present and elaborated on in the Sun Series. I
think it cannot be ignored. (identity, cloning, father-son, faerie, unreliable 
narrator etc.)

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