What symbols mean for Wolfe

Bill Burgess · 26 Nov 2012, 21:28 · from 2012-November.txt.gz

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From: whburth at gmail.com (Bill Burgess)
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:28:28 -0800
Subject: (urth) What symbols mean for Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W432779EC09A10BBD568433CF5F0 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W432779EC09A10BBD568433CF5F0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <CAPdJJvSGKU6HEibiV-EN6-DpssR8OwOKkt3tnvQoBpyiOguyTQ at mail.gmail.com>

The significance of symbols is nothing more then the human commitments they
represent.
Symbols shape us because our commitments shape us.
Just as a symbol represents knowledge which is not completed even after  a
lifetime of learning,   so our commitments represent the fact that there is
more to us then what we know --  and as our lives unfold according to our
commitments, so does our knowledge.

Furthermore,  just as the commonwealth reconstitutes itself every morning
in the shrill tones of it's own clarions,  we reconstitute ourselves every
morning in our commitments.    My wedding ring is only as significant as my
commitment, and my commitment must reconstitute itself every morning (or
there were times, when I was a younger and better looking man).   Even if a
commitment is broken,  one often has second chances.

See how often Severian breaks what one would assume would be the most
dominant commitment in his life; the guild.   It seems that few situations
could be constructed to have a more determining factor on the commitments
an individual makes in life then that of the guild on its apprentices,  and
yet he breaks his oath repeatedly and vows not to do so again.

Of course,  broken commitments can have as much influence on life as kept
commitments,  and so a symbol retains it's significance either way,  but it
is a different significance.

Free will is to determinism as up is to down or east is to west,  we are
determined by what we choose and one could not exist without the other.

On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 6:05 AM, Lee Berman <severiansola at hotmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> >Bill Burgess: I'd find it a little surprising that anyone would think
> Severian was not
> >freely making the decisions which lead him on his path.
>
> I'm thinking Daniel Petersen's comment may have been inspired by
> Severian's/Wolfe's own
> line that "We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they
> invent us; we are their
> creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.".
>
> This would appear to fly in the face of "free will". How can we fully have
> it if "symbols"
> can control and define our choices?
>
> I think this adds religious philosophical depth to BotNS. We need the
> illusion(?) of free
> will to function as a human being on a day by day basis. But the devoutly
> religious must
> somehow reconcile this with the irrational awareness that we are the
> creation of an
> omniscient and omnipotent God who created the universe knowing it would
> irrevocably lead
> to every single micro-choice we end up making in life.
>
> The quote above is related to Severian's treasuring of the (false) coin he
> received from
> Vodalus and his lack of awareness that accepting the coin led to an
> attachment to Vodalus
> and the values he fought for, which affected his choice to disobey his
> guild in regard to
> Vodalus' follower, Thecla and many other choices after that.
>
> (it does make me wonder what new values Gene Wolfe found himself adopting
> and what choices
> he ended up making based on his acceptance of symbols such as a US
> military uniform and gun)
>
> I wonder if this all relates in some way to the ring Horn chooses to wear
> in Short Sun. I think
> we readers are meant to understand it provides a portal for god-like
> beings to possess him or
> influence his choices. But for Horn, the ring might seem only to have
> symbolic meaning. Perhaps
> a practical example of how symbols might shape us when they represent
> powerful forces beyond our
> understanding.
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