Fallible Narrators and Even More Fallible

James Jordan · 11 Jun 2001, 09:21 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Fallible Narrators and Even More Fallible
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 09:21:16
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0817 at digest.urth.net>
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At 08:35 PM 6/10/2001 -0500, you wrote:

>Where is the religious ambiguity in TBOTNS?  Well, for instance, I think,
>almost certainly, that Master Ash's bleak and scientific outlook depicted
>part of that ambiguity.   Maybe, too, the notion visited in "Sword of the
>Lictor" that, if the universe had existed for an infinite time, all things,
>including angels, would have come into existence by logical necessity.  An=
d,
>from my religious perspective, it's hard to imagine a more terrifying story
>than Melito's story from the "Citadel of the Autarch" of "The Cock, the
>Angel, and the Eagle", especially as that story was revisited and affirmed
>as true in "Urth of the New Sun."   The point is that within TBOTNS Mr.
>Wolfe himself generates an alternative religious interpretation of the wor=
ld
>in which his story takes place, something that an atheistic would be much
>more comfortable with than a priest.  (Though there's also plenty of room
>for the priest's interpretation.)  To me, this ambiguity is most excellent
>and makes the work, not only uplifting (as would be a purely religious
>work), but also subtly frightening.

>Imperator

         FWIW, this is exactly and precisely what Roman Catholic James=20
Blish does in his classic *A Case of Conscience.* Wolfe shares Blish's=20
Thomism. Blish provides both a "nature" version of the story, and a "grace"=20
version of the story, and only the "eye of faith" can see which version is=20
the more "ultimate" explanation of events. It would not surprise me if=20
Wolfe, who certainly knows Blish's work, would do the same thing.

Nutria


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