Latro Thoughts

Lee Berman · 31 Jul 2013, 14:15 · from 2013-July.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 10:15:53 -0400
Subject: (urth) Latro Thoughts
Message-ID: <BLU175-W28AD9E2B669D833748C204CF570 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson: Yes, and I believe the the pagan gods in the SOLDIER books are intended to
>be literally that, as Wolfe has professed his belief in the existence of
>lesser gods like those recorded as inferior rivals of the Old Testament
>God.

I agree.

>Marc Aramini: Yeah the trauma is only the most superficial touch of realism- gods 
> and the wellsprings of human faith are as real as they can be in those 
> books, but the religious scheme is syncretic. The triple goddess, the 
> sublimation of Pleistorus into Ahura Mazda- these are all pointing to 
> a recrystallization and refocus of the divine identities into 
> something more uniform once their ideological differences are 
> resolved.

I agree

>David Stockhoff: And those differences are if anything made even more clear among the 
>gods of the /Whorl./

I doubly agree. Dr. Crane's assessment mirrors that conflation of head trauma with receiving 
divine inspiration/communication with God/the gods.

And I think Marc's discussion of the "recrystalization and refocus of divine identities
into something more uniform" is mirrored in Long/Short Sun as the "cards" of the gods
seem to become shuffled and redealt into more unified entities, i.e. the godling Pig 
seems to have components of Phaea, Tartaros and Pas incorporated. Pieces of Pas, Scylla
Echidna, Kypris, Sphygx, Molpe, Thelxiepeia and maybe Hierax seem scattered here and there 
within various characters.

Given Jeff's consideration of Wolfe's assessment of the reality of pagan gods, this re-
combining theme makes Wolfe's personal theology very interesting with regard to pagan
gods, the Trinity and Christianity.

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