Agia's Weapons

Lee Berman · 22 Dec 2011, 13:56 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:56:07 -0500
Subject: (urth) Agia's Weapons
Message-ID: <SNT123-W214873063C2823CEFCAE4CCFAA0 at phx.gbl>

>>The Christian definition of evil is separation from God, yes? God had to wipe out 
>>earth (and Gene Wolfe had to wipe out Urth) because it was irretrievably separated 
>>from God.

>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes: No. The definition of evil is rejection of God or deliberate
>disobedience of His will. This _causes_ separation from God, which is the definition 
>of damnation.

Fair enough. I agree that fallen angels chose to reject God. And I can cautiously agree
that human women knowingly engaged in intercourse with these demons, though I'm not sure
it is fair to expect them to resist superhuman seduction. But what about the offspring of 
those unholy matings? The Nephilim and whatever other wicked beings were produced. Surely
they rejected God in their choices, but what choice did they really have? They were demonic 
by nature. God wiped out the whole lot of them, saving only Noah and his family.  Why was 
this necessary (if God has freedom, as you claim)? Why didn't God soften their demonic 
hearts? Get them all to Sunday school and teach them goodness? Why did He choose the genocide?

>David Stockhoff: Sure, but Dorcas didn't do that (flood the Urth) either.

Heh, I think the conversation is spiralling out of control. It started with the suggestion
that Gene Wolfe might use pedophilia and incest as markers of evil. Among Greek gods (and Greeks)
such  things were considered normal, not evil and this is one of the reasons I can see equating
Greek gods with fallen angels/demons, from a Judeo-Christian point of view. 

Not coincidentally, sexual prudery was a cultural divider between early Judeo-Christians and their 
more lascivious neighbors and forebears. The sexual freedom divide remains today among the devout, 
multiplied by the addition of a younger cousin, Islam. (of course we are still Judeo-Christian
enough to reject incest and pedophilia. But fornication and homosexuality are becoming more and
more accepted among the non-devout).

I am suggesting Dorcas feels like an unclean spirit because she is engaged in a sexual
relationship with her grandson. She doesn't know it. She didn't choose to do it. Yet she senses
the evil in it anyway. (Severian mistakenly thinks she is repulsed because of his occupation, but 
we know that isn't it). The source of her spiritual unhappiness is only revealed to a first-time
reader at the very end of the story.

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