ending and other stuff WK

stilskin · 06 Jan 2005, 08:49 · from 2005-January.txt.gz

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From: acronus at yahoo.com (stilskin)
Date: Thu Jan  6 08:49:52 2005
Subject: (urth) ending and other stuff WK
In-Reply-To: <002701c4f40e$4332d1e0$4c1e4b0a at vcorp.ad.vrsn.com>
Message-ID: <20050106164948.63605.qmail at web20023.mail.yahoo.com>

I'm not sure, in the context of the WK universe, that
America is above Kleos.  I seem to recall a place
where Able muses that it is located sort of sideways
to Mythgarthr.  Of course, he might very well be wrong
about that!

One thing I kept thinking throughout was that Gene
Wolfe was the Most High God, as is every author in
terms of his/her fictional creations.  But I got the
feeling that Wolfe was setting up an analogy between
his creations and God's -- that we are fictional
characters in the mind of God who may, through our
actions, take on a reality we might not otherwise
possess.  I wonder if Able, at the end of the novel,
is not being taken by Michael to Able's America but,
rather, to ours . . .  That just as, in the Catholic
faith, virtuous souls receive the reward of rising to
a realer existence, in Heaven, so, too, does Able rise
(with Disiri)to an incarnation outside the pages of
the novel.

Paul

--- James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net> wrote:

> >The idea (that somebody proposed here) that Able's
> going back to America to
> >serve the Most High God -- and I sure hope the
> great lord in need of a
> knight
> >is the Most High God and not the American President
> -- I find much more
> >convincing.
> 
> Well, that's not exactly what I said, but then I
> like the idea that Able
> will return to America in "knight's service" to the
> Most High God. But that
> is a whole extra level above Kleos, and Able must
> first succeed in his
> mission there.
> 
> Incidentally, for reference sake, here is the
> instance in Able's dream in
> Mythgarthr where he sees an ambulance taking him (to
> a hospital? a
> morgue?).
> 
> "Beyond the black pavilion was a highway. Cars,
> trucks, SUVs, and minvans -- 
> all sorts of vehicles -- were traveling on it, going
> so fast that it seemed
> certain they would crash. There was a school bus, a
> red hook-and-ladder, a
> black-and-white police car, and a white ambulance.
> Those stand out even now.
> The ambulance rocked from side to side as it tore
> along with its light bar
> blazing and its siren screaming. I climbed down and
> went to the highway. The
> drivers would not stop for me, and I shouted at
> their cars, thinking how far
> the ambulance was getting ahead of me. Able -- the
> real Able -- was in that
> ambulance.  I knew that, and I wanted to help him."
> -- "The Wizard" pg 459
> 
> 
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=====
http://www.sff.net/people/stilskin

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