Wolfean epiphany

David Stockhoff · 02 Dec 2011, 22:31 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:31:04 -0500
Subject: (urth) Wolfean epiphany
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Message-ID: <4ED951A8.9040509 at verizon.net>

On 12/2/2011 5:10 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On Fri, December 2, 2011 15:59, David Stockhoff wrote:
>> Why is this a clue to a strange and climactic scene of UNS? Because the
>> unmanning was not a random punishment. There were surely practical
>> reasons for it, but I think Wolfean logic demanded it. It's ridiculously
>> simple. Positive is balanced with negative, presence with absence.
>> Either you pass and your genitals contribute to a mythic regeneration or
>> you fail and they no longer exist.
> This seems culturally relative, and not particularly of a BotNS-wide
> culture; in Norse myth, which is very much a part of the mix, missing body
> parts indicate the opposite outcome of a fruitful sacrifice: Heads for
> wisdom, eyes for knowledge, hands for justice.

Ah, so there is precedent for it. Yes, it seems to have a mythical 
force, so I'm not surprised.

But my point has nothing to do with any BNS culture and everything to do 
with the kind of logical path Wolfe expects us to know how to follow. If 
there are such rules in myth, then so much the better.

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