Lupiverse(es)

Daniel Petersen · 14 Mar 2012, 22:36 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:36:15 +0000
Subject: (urth) Lupiverse(es)
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Well, I'm way behind in all the gritty details of this debate, but (that's
where you all stop reading - ach, well)... Just because Wolfe is no Card
(is that a pun?) doesn't mean he can't be a clearly spiritual (and, dare I
say it, 'evangelistic') writer in his own way.  I, at least, have found a
richly rendered 'incarnational' and 'improvisational' sort of 'apologia'
and 'euangelion' (yes, radically distinct in many important ways from the
likes of Chesterton or Lewis) *IN THE TEXTS* of the Solar Cycle, an
invitational and 'subversive' Christian orthodoxy and orthopraxy (be they
ever so slyly idiosyncratic) that basically 'triumphs' over all the other
systems (e.g. from polytheism to gnosticism) in a theo-comedic 'underdog'
sort of way (for those who wish to see it - Wolfe is no bully).  [Akin to
St Paul's 'cosmic judo' sort of atonement theology in Colossians
2:15<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians%202:13-19&version=NIV>
.]

I believe that this being the case in no way shuts down or closes the
'infinite play of meaning' that his narratives clearly intend to induce.
 But it does give that play certain contours and trajectories if we want to
acknowledge them.

I hope to write about it in more detail some day...

-DOJP

On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I think like James, apparently. I'm just generally skeptical of approaches
> that start by assuming what Wolfe must think and then try to find that in
> the text. I'd rather start with the story and stay with it. I know I just
> said not long ago that you have to take his Catholicism into account, but I
> think of it more as an intellectual and allusion-based context, rather than
> a program. Doesn't mean the stories can't end up saying those things, but
> it's a matter of how you get there, I suppose.
>
> And, James, do you remember where he makes that Card comparison? I recall
> it, but can't place it.
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
> *To:* The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:42 AM
> *Subject:* Re: (urth) Lupiverse(es)m
>
>  On 3/14/2012 10:10 AM, Craig Brewer wrote:
>
> I'm not saying you can't still draw "spiritual" conclusions about all of
> this. But they're going to be more indirect, I think, than "this is Wolfe's
> final theological statement on X." For example: Urth continues, and it's a
> better place, but it's not a perfect "Christian" world, right?
>
>
> I think it is a big mistake to read Wolfe as one would read Chesterton or
> Lewis. He's not primarily "justifying God's ways to man". Nor is he
> primarily demonstrating the moral & practical primacy of classical
> liberalism. There is some of that in there, but --although I vocally detect
> a lot of things going on in his novels-- I don't detect that he feels bound
> to any theological historicity. If I believed that, then I would conclude
> that Wolfe has strong secret gnostic leanings. And I don't.  Briah is far
> more gnostic than Christian. Gnosticism absorbed elements of Christianity
> just as it did everything else so you're going to see Christian elements in
> any gnostic world. It is not for nothing that Severian is named after a
> gnostic Christian sect.
>
> Wolfe has said that he doesn't feel an especial need to express his faith
> in his writings (citing Orson Scott Card as a counter-example). Trying to
> detect his theological beliefs from the setting or final resolution of Urth
> strikes me as folly.
>
> The New Sun can be most naturally read as being in our future. The
> universe iterations allow you to elide that if you want to. But one should
> not carry it to the next level and speculate on the theological
> implications of the expanding/collapsing universes.
>
> J
>
>
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