Lupiverse(es)

Lee Berman · 16 Mar 2012, 14:15 · from 2012-March.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:15:12 -0400
Subject: (urth) Lupiverse(es)
Message-ID: <SNT123-W26D86AD082E5C0546C1B3CCF5F0 at phx.gbl>

>>But in a literary world populated by Dr. Cranes, that could be seen as 
>>a form of subversion.

>David Stockhoff: Possibly. It's true that many of the Golden Age SF writers 
>were Jewish. But look at how many fantasy writers were overtly Christian.

Heh, funny. I do picture Dr. Crane as jewish. Edward G. Robinson would play
him in the movie. Anyway, I purposefully only said that SF is a genre highly
populated by atheist though. I thought someone might (justifiably) point
out that that isn't true for fantasy. Funny, I think Wolfe has cited LeGuin
as someone he admires but I'd say their perceived ideologies are diametrically
opposed. Anyway, yeah, I can agree that perhaps Wolfe is subverting SF with 
fantasy more than religion.

>Severian's narrative shows any number of gnostic trappings. The culture 
>that is its setting, beginning with the mysteries of the guild where he 
>was raised, clearly values secrets over the sharing of knowledge. He 
>repeatedly hides and reveals, hides and reveals in his own narration.

So we have a story about a gnostic sect living on a gnostic planet in a gnostic
universe and we are forced to use gnostic methods to discern the full meaning
of the story. No lesson of simple Christian faith here.  Secret knowledge is 
indeed required.

For some reason the example of Abaia comes to mind. In earlier readings I didn't 
know mythological Abaia was an eel. So I didn't know he was meant to be associated
with Murene, the town on the shores of Lake Diuturna. Knowing that suggests that 
the Baldanders character is supposed to be associated with both Juturna and Abaia. 
And knowing the association with these two fishy characters might explain his 
underwater breathing and the scars(?) on his neck. But who (pre-internet) knew
who/what Abaia was?

And there are so many other examples where really esoteric knowledge like that is 
required to piece the puzzles together. Juripari, Fomalhaut, Ouroboros and 
Matthew 17:27 all relate to fish mouths. How do these relate to each other (and
Abaia and Thelxiepeia and Mamelta and The Mother)? I guess there probably remains
mysteries to solve.

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