urth-urth.net Digest, Vol 6, Issue 13

David Lebling · 08 Feb 2005, 13:26 · from 2005-February.txt.gz

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From: dlebling at hyraxes.com (David Lebling)
Date: Tue Feb  8 13:26:43 2005
Subject: (urth) RE: urth-urth.net Digest, Vol 6, Issue 13
References: <0E50DE328EBD6F4FA7F07A31A12AE34F239C66 at MCLNEXVS02.resource.ds.bah.com>
Message-ID: <003601c50e24$e84848b0$a51b0101 at gensym.com>

My recollection is that Wolfe has stated that the pagan gods actually
existed, and were in effect, demons. This is, I think, a conservative but
orthodox position within the Catholic Church.

On the other hand, the Overcyns don't appear to be demons, and appearing as
a blaze of light when viewed with the Helmet of True Seeing (sorry, too much
D&D in my youth) seems more to indicate that they are godlike rather than
demonic.

Wolfe's conception of the worlds in Wizard Knight is that each is made of
the leftovers of the one higher up, which to my mind would indicate that the
Overcyns are godlike but not as godlike as (e.g.) Michael, and still less
godlike than the Highest God.

So in short, I think that Wolfe's thinking on the matter (at least as
expressed in his fiction) has refined itself since his comments about the
pagan gods, which I believe were contemporaneous with _Soldier in the Mist_.
Of course, the Overcyns also seem to be somewhat nicer than the Greek gods,
and nicer than the actual Norse pantheon.

-- Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taylor Peter" <taylor_peter at bah.com>
Hi - I'm new to the list; I found your allusion to "Wolfe's theory
regarding the pagan gods" very interesting. I believe Wolfe explores
this quite a bit in the Urth/Long/Short Sun series as well - would
anyone care to elaborate on it?

Thanks
-Peter

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