The Wizard

Lee Berman · 06 Mar 2012, 18:33 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 13:33:55 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Wizard
Message-ID: <SNT123-W536DF4322F460DC291EB25CF510 at phx.gbl>

>Daniel Petersen: Aw, come on, guys.  It's not too hard to 
>know which is 'primary' for Wolfe.

Heh. The funny thing is that I would tend to agree with you 
if your position was that pagan/gnostic religious references
were primary in the Sun Series. That is what seems obvious to
me. There are so many of them and so few Christian references.
Do we need to do a list/count to corroborate this?

On the other hand, I could see how quality might trump quantity
for a Christian reader reading a Christian author. One "sign of
addition" could outshine a hundred Typhons and Tzadkiels and
Sphigxs and Scyllas and Echidnas and Thyones and Thelxiepeias.
Perhaps such a secret, Christian insider code is what Wolfe was 
going for.  I dunno. I've spent a lot of time reading Wolfe 
interviews about his work and I get a different impression.

>Gerry Quinn: So why do you think Wolfe put Jesus in?  To confuse 
>people?  There was nothing that obliged him to put in the reference.  
>Or if he really did want to say that Jesus in Silk?s universe was 
>not Christ, he could have put some hint in here.  (But then why does 
>the Outsider show him to Silk?).

I don't find it confusing. The biggest hint I find is that The Outsider
is a dark god. Darkness defines Him. I assume Jesus in that universe was
a dark, Outsider prophet, like Severian. Thus both were shown to Silk.

There is a similarity of the Outsider to Dionysus/Great God Pan/Green Man, 
who is a dark pagan god in our universe in contrast to the light of the 
Christian God and saviour.

>[Wolfe] said he was thinking about cosmic cycles, and he does suggest that the 
>Solar cycle takes place some time in such a series.  It?s part of the 
>story, in fact.  It?s by no means obvious whether Urth exists in a past, 
>future or current iteration.  

It is not fully clear in the story. But Wolfe makes it explicitly clear in 
interviews: 

>JJ: This universe that you set in Briah, or part of it--is that our universe?...

>GW: No. I thought of it as a long past universe. Something that we are repeating 
>rather than something that we are.

We hear Gene Wolfe's own voice on that video interview say that the universe of 
Wizard/Knight is not a Christian universe. He is similarly explicit about a Christ-
absence in There Are Doors:

>GW: This is the Christian world. That world is not the Christian world. That world 
>is kind of a warmed-over pagan world.

I see this as a theme across much of Wolfe's work. The importance of Christ and the
Light is demonstrated by creating dark worlds and universes without Him.  That such
places resemble pre-Christian earth is no surprise.

I don't insist that every reader must see it this way. But I find it a pretty valid
viewpoint supported by a lot more evidence than, say French wine tasting ;- ).

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