Gene Wolfe - two carpenters

Christopher J. Henrich · 26 Apr 2007, 16:09 · from rec.arts.books.2007.mbox

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From: "Christopher J. Henrich" <chenrich at monmouth.com>
Subject: Re: Gene Wolfe - two carpenters
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:09:14 GMT
Message-ID: <260420071209156389%chenrich at monmouth.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.books,alt.religion.christian,alt.atheism
References: <4144ea0fb3404d4b6e1ab8a74b14dbfe at msgid.frell.theremailer.net> <1177591275.681844.222630 at r30g2000prh.googlegroups.com>

> 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.
> 
Could be /The/ /Last/ /Temptation/ /of/ /Christ/, by Nikos Kazantzakis.

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