DOORS: The Hero, The Otherworld, The Ending

Andy Robertson · 17 Jan 2003, 11:11 · from urth-v0301.mbox · original

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From: "Andy Robertson" <andywrobertson at clara.co.uk>
Subject: Re: (urth) DOORS: The Hero, The Otherworld, The Ending
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 11:11:08 -0000
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----- Original Message -----
From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at HotPOP.com>

> Wolfe almost always presents the Goddess stand-ins as generally in league
> with his protagonists (in the Soldier series there's some ambiguity here).
> In the Long Sun, the Goddess' aspect as Love (Kypris/Aphrodite) is the
> Vironese/Pagan image of the Outsider/Christian God --- the image selected
by
> the Outsider for himself.

I think we have to look to what seems to be that traditional mode of
Catholic Fabulation, the creation of "little gods".

To put it baldly, Catholicism came from the imposition of a male-centered
Semitic religion on top of a dyarchical male/female European pantheon.
The Goddess keeps on bubbling back up - as Mary, as Theresa - and the Little
Gods start reappearing as Saints.

In Catholic Fabulation, the Little Gods (the remains of the old male/female
aryan pantheon) pop up again and again.

You see this in Lewis, with his eldils, and in Tolkien with his Valar: in
Chesterton's Sunday: and you see it in Laffery with his numerous
trickster-gods and demons.

And of course in Wolfe, you see if NOT with say the gods of mainframe (who
are not simply false images of God, but false replicas of the Little Gods)
but in the numerous lost and fugitive images of ambiguous sub-divinity -
Tzadkiel, and the Mother, for example.

(I had a point somewhere, but , . .  )

The goddess in "There are doors" seems to me to be a conscious but
unsuccessful attempt to address this *directly*.  Wolfe is addressing the
"little god" theme directly, rather than subconsciously, and it does not
really work.  Which is why it is not a very satisfying book, full of loss
and emptyness.

    hartshorn

--=20

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