The Wizard

Gerry Quinn · 09 Mar 2012, 15:47 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 15:47:43 -0000
Subject: (urth) The Wizard
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W47C335144D335F8B1F66C9CF570 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W47C335144D335F8B1F66C9CF570 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <4094E60CD5724AAC943DD71E15ED094E@Rover>



From: Lee Berman 

> Gerry Quinn: 
> > Famously, Wolfe once said - in relation to BotNS I think ? 
> > that he tried to tell the reader everything once and once only.  He did not 
> > suggest telling him 0 times.

> > There are a variety of religions on Urth, and little description of them, and 
> > we only see a small part of the planet.  Christianity may well persist 
> > underground, or may even have changed its form a little and be all around.
 
> By your own principle, Wolfe would not put Christians in his story by 
> mentioning them 0 times. You are suggesting that Wolfe is presenting a future
> in which we can degenerate into being just "a little" Christian? Or that a 
> future society can just be tinged with Christianity around the edges? My 
> impression is that his faith in Christianity is stronger than that.
Well, there are substantial and obvious allusions to Christian symbols and even references to Jesus Christ in Long Sun and Short Sun.  So I don?t see how you can argue that Christianity is not mentioned.
On Urth, on the other hand, Christianity does not seem to be evident.  Perhaps Typhon suppressed it in favour of Monarch-worship.  Marble indicates that the Chems still worshipped the Outsider in Typhon?s time.  Could Christianity have disappeared or almost disappeared from Urth?  It is possible, IMO.  Urth is a degenerate, entropic world that can only be saved by its near destruction.  Perhaps the loss of Christianity is part of this.  But it might not really be relevant.  In New Sun, Wolfe is writing an SF story which *mirrors* to some degree the Christian story.  Perhaps it was simply the logical artistic choice not to put Christianity in the spotlight at the same time.  In Long and Short Sun, this issue does not arise in the same way because we can interpret God as the motor of the story.  The motor of New Sun is specifically an SF conceit.
And I don?t see how you can argue on the one hand that Wolfe could not bring himself to depict a non-Christian society (anyway he has, repeatedly), and at the same time try to paint his books as having a heretical secret history.

 
> In relation to Outsider possession, I am thinking of Tartaros. 

Tartarus?  The digitised personality of Typhon?s blind son?  Why would you think he is the Outsider?

And even if you do, his possession of Auk seems more as a companion than a rider.   Quite different from Scylla, Echidna and even Kypris.


> And as previously
> mentioned, the pagan, archaic setting of the Sun Series leads me to the conclusion
> that the Christian elements we see are heralds of something to come, not remants
> of something departed. It is just my view and needn't be accepted by you or 
> anyone else.      

Okay.  But such elements are pretty commonplace in Wolfe.

- Gerry Quinn



 
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