Dr. Talos' Play

m.driussi · 20 Nov 1997, 02:15 · from urth-v0005.mbox · original

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From: m.driussi at genie.com
Subject: (urth) Re: Dr. Talos' Play
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 97 02:15:00 GMT
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

Reply:  Item #0905837 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#

A few quick notes (because I just can't stop myself):

1) I say the play has seven acts and they probably describe a divine
week, with the final act coming on (New) Sunday.  The Autarch is
Saturn (Saturday); Jahi is Venus (Friday); and so on.  We never see
the last act of the play, which is too bad, but it would be an
interesting exercise to "reconstruct" it from the reality of deluge
Urth/post-deluge Ushas.

2) alga has said before that the play is more about the =3DPersian=3D
creation myth than either the Hebrew or Sumerian.  (Does Sumer have
Titan-like Nephilim?  I don't recall offhand, unless those shadowy
"judge" characters of the underworld who never really appear in the
main stories.)

3) I think the play is quite gnostic at the mythic level; I think it
shows a lot of the dynamic between Severian and women (especially
Agia and Dorcas, who really are Lilith and Eve) at the psychological
level; I think it is constantly being acted out in the course of all
five books.

=3Dmantis=3D

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