Gene Wolfe - two carpenters

jcon · 26 Apr 2007, 12:41 · from rec.arts.books.2007.mbox

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From: jcon <cirejcon at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe - two carpenters
Date: 26 Apr 2007 05:41:15 -0700
Message-ID: <1177591275.681844.222630 at r30g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.books,alt.religion.christian,alt.atheism
References: <4144ea0fb3404d4b6e1ab8a74b14dbfe at msgid.frell.theremailer.net>

On Apr 26, 1:02 am, Jacket Dust <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-
Header@[127.1]> wrote:
> by John Farrell
> First Thingshttp://www.firstthings.com
> April 2007
>
> ..Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun" started out as a long novella
> and rapidly grew to a four-volume science-fiction tour de force. The
> hero, Severian, is a lictor--a professional torturer--whose entire life
> has been dedicated to the infliction of agony. "It has been remarked
> thousands of times," Wolfe once said, "that Christ died under torture.
> Many of us have read so often that he was 'a humble carpenter' that we
> feel a little surge of nausea on seeing the words yet again. But no one
> ever seems to notice that the instruments of torture were wood, nails,
> and a hammer; that the man who built the cross was undoubtedly a
> carpenter too; that the man who hammered in the nails was as much a
> carpenter as a soldier, as much a carpenter as a torturer. Very few
> seem even to have noticed that although Christ was a 'humble
> carpenter,' the only object we are specifically told he made was not a
> table or a chair, but a whip."...
> ==========
> John 2:15http://snipurl.com/1hzg9

There's another book that has
a scene where Jesus is working in his shop on something
for "an important client". At the end of the scene
a couple of Roman soldiers how up and pick up
(of course) their brand new cross.  It says
something like "They paid well and he
needed the work".

Can't remember another thing about the book,
except that I read it a long time ago.  Any
ideas?  The twist has probably been
used more than once.

-jc

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