Fairies and Wolfe

Lee Berman · 02 Apr 2012, 13:05 · from 2012-April.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 09:05:32 -0400
Subject: (urth) Fairies and Wolfe
Message-ID: <SNT123-W19281A0337C65B4DDE9475CF4C0 at phx.gbl>

>Gerry Quinn: But clearly the physics understood by the Dawn Men is 
>rather limited compared to that which will be understood by Severian?s 
>time. Severian does indeed have almost godlike powers through his 
>psychic connection to the White Fountain, but the book makes it clear that 
>future super-technology rather than magic is involved.

I think we are dealing with problems in regard to the definition of the
word "magic". There is the meaning which refers to pure illusion and 
trickery.  This is addressed in BotNS as in the Holy Katharine beheading
and some of the stuff the jungle sorcerers do.

There is the meaning referring to the kind of magic Gandalf does. Fictional
stuff which doesn't really exist and needn't have any substantial explanation.
BotNS might address this in some of its internal stories and legends.

Gerry your post suggests that you distinguish "future super-technology" from
magic. Can you explain the difference?

Let's say you were, like Wolfe, a believer in God and His power and the super-
human power of his angelic servants. What would you call that power?

Atheists often derrogate God's power by referring to it as "magic" and I think
most Christians would be offended by the word. Perhaps "supernatural" power is
better? I suppose "divine" might be the most acceptable.

I actually think "superhuman" is the better term for our purpose here. Godly 
power is defined as that which is beyond the understanding (and use) of regular, 
mortal humans. I think part of the point of the Sun Series is that while all
the various definitions of magic exist, there is more overlap and confusion 
between them than we might think.

Severian is a human character. Wolfe takes pains to make the reader know he
does not understand his own power. He also takes the otherwise unecessary step
of explaining that Tzadkiel is not capable of Severian's healing power. Moreover
Tzadkiel seems to need mechanical technology to accomplish time travel while
Severian does not.

Therefore, as I see it, Severian does not have "god-like" powers, implying they
would lose their mystery if we only knew the trick. Since even a higher being 
like Tzadkiel does not fully understand Severian's power, we humans never, ever
could.  I think we are meant to understand that Severian is using divine, godly 
power and is, thus an aspect of God (the Outsider) as Wolfe has stated.

I agree with David Stockhoff's assessment that godly beings have a hand in their
own creation in BotNS. But I see this as Wolfe's extrapolation of the principle
that God created man in His own image. If God is alpha and omega it makes a sort
of circular logic that Man created God in his own image.

But in BotNS there are higher (and lower) intermediary beings between Man and God.
There is "dark magic" and "divine power" which is not available to humans, just
as the science and technology we use is not fully available to these other beings
especially those more distant from us on the continuum. I suppose Wizard/Knight 
addresses this more clearly.

>Jeff Wilson: I think the Book supports both interpretations: dualism and a kind of 
>transcendentalism or continuism; mortal instrumentality advances and 
>eventually sublimes, doubling back or circulating through time and appearing magical.

I think I agree with Jeff, though again, I'm not fully sure what definition of magic
he is using here.

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