Severian as Jonah

Antonin Scriabin · 16 Apr 2012, 19:26 · from 2012-April.txt.gz

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From: kierkegaurdian at gmail.com (Antonin Scriabin)
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:26:09 -0400
Subject: (urth) Severian as Jonah
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W64487C36952D74C4DD0740CF3E0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W64487C36952D74C4DD0740CF3E0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <CAM0v-i57Q9sQCAxzK_FgdxzckfDPsgHWsBf76-7YqoYNPJM+gg at mail.gmail.com>

Interesting idea.  One difference though is that the task of Jonah on his
travels was to save Nineveh from its moral corruption, and Severian has the
more "mundane" task of bringing the New Sun.  They seem like different
"types" of salvation to me.

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 3:23 PM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> I was watching a TV show on the "Secrets of Christianity" and there was
> a segment on a sea voyage Jesus took. The interesting part (for this
> list) was a mention that Jesus probably took this trip as a deliberate
> attempt at recreating Jonah's voyage. There are a number of parallels to
> be found between Jonah and Jesus (
> http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/charts/The%20Typology%20of%20Jonah%20and%20Jesus.htm
> )
>
> The part I found most pertinent to BotNS was the parallel of Jonah spending
> 3 days in the belly of the great fish, then being expelled, parallelling
> Jesus' 3 days in the cave then being resurrected.
>
> Previously I had posted about a recurring theme regarding fish mouths and
> caves that I saw in BotNS including the Jurupari reference, the Ouroboros
> story, Abaia and undines, the man-ape cave and the Fomalhaut reference.
> Though
> I saw this theme, I really didn't understand its significance. Perhaps now
> I do.
>
> Not everyone agrees but I see Urth (and The Whorl) as a "gnostic" world
> which,
> despite being more technologically advanced (and declined) than modern
> earth,
> is spiritually retarded; i.e. they have not yet received Christ. If this is
> the case then perhaps the fish mouth/cave theme is meant to invoke
> Severian as
> a Jonah-like figure. A precursor who helps prepare the world for a future
> coming of Christ.
>
> FWIW, various translations of the Jonah story list him as swallowed by a
> whale,
> a great fish and even *a great beast*.
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