Digest urth.v008.n005

Alice Turner12 Mar 1998, 06:28original as archived

Peter,

1 quoted line

As a fan of both Wolfe and W.B. Yeats, I've been struck by some parallels. I could easily be convinced that they are simply parallels, and not direct influences, but they seem to be close enough to be interesting.

Don't forget the rose imagery. Yeats is chock-full of it, Wolfe only somewhat less so. -alga-

Paul C Duggan12 Mar 1998, 08:49original as archived

↳ follows Alice Turner · by subject

2 quoted lines

On Thu, 12 Mar 1998 urth-errors at lists.best.com wrote: Even if this isn't what happens in this particular episode, it's certainly striking how quickly Severian `falls off' in any episode where he is somehow fleetingly put up against Christ... In the first example I hazarded, which looked a bit like Christ before Pilate, the chapter ends with Severian demonstrating his torturing skills on one of the soldiers (at the lochage's suggestion, it should be said). In the last, he ends up by killing Typhon/Piaton (though if he's somehow the Devil in this episode then my weak theology has run out of exegetic steam). These sort of references seem like little pieces in a mosaic, which is a suitably Byzantine image.

While your first example of Severians failures rings ture, I'm not so sure abotu the second. It seemed analogous to what happens in C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, where the devil is defeated by SPOILERS physical force, after Ransom realizes that the argumentation phase was at a close. END SPOILERS usually, people either love Lewis' solution at that point, or hate it. I'm one of the ones who likes it a great deal. "I am an impure thinker. I am hurt, swayed, shaken, | paul + | + elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted, and I | --|-- have to transmit my mental experiences lest I die." | + | + -- Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy | pduggan at world.std.com