Scylla & Oreb

James Jordan · 19 Apr 2002, 19:29 · from urth-v0204.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Scylla & Oreb
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 14:29:44 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0204-704 at digest.urth.net>
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At 02:06 PM 4/19/2002, you wrote:

>I did note that the one element of the  Briah cycle which does *not* fit in
>with neo-Catholic ideas is the frequent transfer of human identity.
>
>In the Bible there is the  "possession" of humans by indwelling demons or
>angelic forces, but the idea that a human soul could shift from body to bo=
dy
>is not found.
>
>     hartshorn

Quite true, literally. But "mystically" the Communion unites believers not=20
only with Christ but with one another, and even with the saints in heaven.=20
Wolfe simply makes the "symbolic" into the "literal" in the Briah books.=20
Severian literally drowns and comes back to life in his baptisms. People=20
literally eat each other and participate in each other's memories. Wolfe is=20
"getting at" Christian notions, but is doing so by making them "literal."
         And also, I suppose it depends on how much of a traditional=20
transsubstantionist Wolfe is. Traditional RC theology is fairly=20
"literalistic" in its view of Communion: the outward "accidents" remain=20
bread and wine, but the inward "substance" is "really" (in the=20
philosophical sense) the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ extended=20
through space "into" the bread and wine. If Wolfe is traditionalistic on=20
this point, then his use cannibalism and of identity transfer in the Briah=20
books is even closer to his brand of Christianity than it would be to, say,=20
mine, or to many modern Catholic theologians.
         Anyway, all this stuff in the Briah books is metaphorical for=20
symbolic (in some senses) Christian notions, not a nod toward literal Hindu=20
ones.

Nutria


--=20

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