Necromancy, and Severian on trial

Maru Dubshinki · 21 Mar 2005, 19:24 · from 2005-March.txt.gz

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From: marudubshinki at gmail.com (Maru Dubshinki)
Date: Mon Mar 21 19:24:57 2005
Subject: (urth) Necromancy, and Severian on trial
In-Reply-To: <423F89DE.4070708 at bitterman.net>
References: <BAY102-F11A4CFB410ED53E71165FA864D0 at phx.gbl>
	<423F89DE.4070708 at bitterman.net>
Message-ID: <f5238c3050321192424af18bf at mail.gmail.com>

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 21:58:38 -0500, Thomas Bitterman <tom at bitterman.net> wrote:
> Because we've all heard the story before.  All 3 major Western religions
> are built on events in
> which either God Himself, or members of the religion with God's approval
> and help, kill bunches
> of other people.  The holy books which are taught to us since childhood
> and inform our culture
> approve of the killing.  So of course when somebody else comes along and
> says he had to kill a
> bunch of people for a supreme being we find nothing unusual.
> 
> Was Wolfe thinking of this?  It makes some sense if we view Urth as
> stuck in a sort of pre-Old
> Testament mode, when things were done that way.

Or a pagan mode. I cannot help but be reminded everytime I hear 'New
Sun' that that is a title that could very well have been used by the
Roman soldiers in their solar cults, or possible Zoroastrianism, or
really, any of a grab bag (Egyptian too probably) of religions and
cults that had the basic myth/archetype of resurrection and rebirth,
and also liked the sun.

And let us not forget the play in TBotNS; I once was told that the
play was like a skeleton key to the whole cycle. It makes a certain
sense that there would be a parallel between the old people in the
play being hunted and killed (I'm not sure about the killing bit- its
been a while since I read the play) and actual 'Old Sun'ers being
killed. The whole eschatological cleansing of the world, Apocalypse
now, Jerusalem being made anew, and a third of the population shall be
struck down etc. etc.

~Maru

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