Digest whorl.v006.n011

Kevin McGuire · 25 Jun 1997, 01:00 · from whorl-v0006.mbox · original

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From: "Kevin McGuire" <kmcguire at itw.com>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v006.n011
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 01:00:52 +0000
Message-ID: <whorl-v0006-0391 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Rostrum writes:
> Others have pointed out that Severian seems to fill the "Christ figure"=20
> definition in several ways (working miracles, saving the world), but the
> things that most often cause a character to be compared to Christ are
> sacrificial death or suffering for others and some form of death, burial,
> and resurrection.  Using those two criteria, I'd say Silk (ObWhorl!) fits
> the bill for "Christ figure" more than Severian, and neither one fits as
> well as, say, Tom Joad in _The Grapes of Wrath_ (trying to dredge up a
> "Christ figure" from high school English classes and probably getting the
> name wrong) or Tolkein's Aragorn.

With regards to Severian's death, resurrection, et. al - I'd like to=20
recall the whole Apu Punchau (spelling?) sequence at the end of the=20
New Sun books.

On the actual early church parallels in the Long Sun books, isn't it=20
interesting that the Long Sun, as told by Horn (who is a=20
contemporary, but not central figure in the events in question), reconstruc=
ted after=20
the fact, parallels the same sort of storytelling one sees in the=20
Gospels?  The Book of Horn?  This could be compared to the first=20
person narrative of  the New Sun books, where (if you'll forgive my=20
stretching the analogy a wee bit) is written from the Messiah's point=20
of view.

Kevin McGuire
(.sig omitted because I clearly don't have a clue how to format the=20
damn things - not that Philadelphia isn't a pretty damn scary=20
place, Patrick...)

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