The Wizard

Lee Berman · 11 Mar 2012, 04:31 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:31:17 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Wizard
Message-ID: <SNT123-W79D78825CE1D1E4B0FC6FCF5A0 at phx.gbl>

>Craig Brewer: Here's the link. Random q&a from the list a long time ago.

>http://www.ansible.co.uk/cc/cc77.html

Thanks Craig. That was fanstastic! I'd seen excerpts from that interview 

before but never the whole thing.

One significant thing I noticed regarding the previous debate (which I acknowlege you

find moot) is this question and the form of the answer:

>Q.Is the Outsider a spiritual God? Or another virtual being? ?  A. The Outsider is a spiritual God.

If Gene Wolfe submitted his answer in writing and it was faithfully reproduced then the use of a

capital G does add evidence that he considers The Outsider to be our one, true Christian God.

The mention of Silk being broadly considered a member of the Order of Seekers of Truth and Penitence

makes some sense to me in light of a personal interpretation of the text which has been batted

around here in the past. A certain passage leads me to believe that the animal sacrifice found in

the religion of Viron has its roots in human sacrifice back on Urth. The words of Typhon to Severian

suggest it and I think that's why Echidna brings it back by roasting Musk when given a chance.

So if Silk is seeking truth by cutting open animals, so were his antecedents, the Torturers, seeking

truth by cutting open humans (the penitence part could be debated later). I'm guessing this is what 

Wolfe was getting at by the suggestion of "Silk as Torturer".

Of course the issue of human sacrifice has a deeper pagan/religious significance.  The barbaric nature

of God in the OT by 21st century moral standards has been debated here. But I think most could agree

that pagan and barbaric as He might seem to some today, He was a cut above the other gods of the time

by proscribing human sacrifice and demanding more personal diligence and greater sexual purity among 

his followers.(imho, these qualities are what have made Judaism and Christianity [and Islam] the 

powerful cultural forces they remain to this day).

I think the worst characters in the Sun Series might be marked by their propensity for human sacrifice

(e.g. Baldanders).

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