What symbols mean for Wolfe

Daniel Petersen · 26 Nov 2012, 13:01 · from 2012-November.txt.gz

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From: danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com (Daniel Petersen)
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:01:54 +0000
Subject: (urth) What symbols mean for Wolfe
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Clearest in his treatment of the chems.  That is, you may not necessarily
own even your thoughts, but there are still occasions where you get the
opportunity to make meaningful decisions, and making the correct one can
lead to further expansion of your freedom.  And in _Soldier of Sidon_, if
you have arete (are virtuous), you choose to be the best slave that you can
be.

David Duffy.

In that case, some of the things chems do in Long and Short Suns become
even more poignant (e.g. Marble and her fella creating Olivine together).

-DOJP


On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 11:55 AM, David Duffy <David.Duffy at qimr.edu.au>wrote:

> On Mon, 26 Nov 2012, Daniel Petersen wrote:
>
> Some passages struck me as flirting with some sort of determinism (even if
>> compatibilist), but I can't recall where offhand.  Does anyone see any
>> evidence of *libertarian* freewill in BotNS?  I think I agree with Bill's
>> analysis of Severian's choices being central to shaping the turnings of
>> his
>> story, which does look more like libertarian freewill than anything else
>> to
>> me.  If the more determinist notions do exist in the text as I recall,
>> then
>> I assume what we have is a wrestling between the two philosophies in the
>> series rather than a clear espousal or embodiment of one over the other.
>>
>
> Clearest in his treatment of the chems.  That is, you may not necessarily
> own even your thoughts, but there are still occasions where you get the
> opportunity to make meaningful decisions, and making the correct one can
> lead to further expansion of your freedom.  And in _Soldier of Sidon_, if
> you have arete (are virtuous), you choose to be the best slave that you can
> be.
>
> David Duffy.
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> Urth Mailing List
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> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
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