urth-urth.net Digest, Vol 7, Issue 24

Kieran Mullen · 31 Mar 2005, 15:30 · from 2005-March.txt.gz

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From: kieran at ou.edu (Kieran Mullen)
Date: Thu Mar 31 15:30:46 2005
Subject: (urth) Re: urth-urth.net Digest, Vol 7, Issue 24
In-Reply-To: <20050331200810.CF4D184D4A at che.dreamhost.com>
References: <20050331200810.CF4D184D4A at che.dreamhost.com>
Message-ID: <758c5e2609fad677a6c73f172f8bd0c2 at ou.edu>

> I've never really understood how Christian readers of Wolfe can take 
> the
> Christian imagery surrounding the New Sun at face value, ignoring the 
> fact
> that unlike Jesus, it brings not salvation but indiscriminate death and
> damnation.
>

Well, as a Catholic and a reader of Wolfe I have found this thread to 
be rather odd.   Your point seems to be that any change in the future 
of Urth that causes the death of anyone is immoral.   The supposition 
is that the "Frozen Urth" future is the "true future" and that "Reborn 
Urth" is some choice that Severian makes leading to the deaths of 
millions.

Neither future is real until it happens.  We see people from both 
(Master Ash and the Green Man).   It is true that Severian chooses the 
cataclysm of rebirth.   However, to choose the Frozen Future would be 
to condemn the Green Man and all those who might live in the future to 
non-existence.   Is that inately better?

I always thought that the inhabitants of Urth got to choose their 
future - that was the point of the battle in UotNS.   Those who opposed 
the New Sun fought those who favored it.  The New Sun won.

For me the analogy is a poisoned bog that has some critters eking out 
some existence in it.  You might choose to clean it up, but in doing so 
you wreak havoc on those already there, or who are adapted to the 
poisons.   So you should just leave it a toxic dump.

Let's say Severian had to go to Briah to *stop* the arrival of the 
White Fountain and keep the Urth on its current path of freezing in the 
dark.  Are you arguing that that would be a better choice?

Kieran Mullen
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