Digest whorl.v010.n049Whorl

Rat rote:

A base canard, O Water-Hog! (A) we do not know what Wolfe's religious beliefs actually are, as he is coy on the subject. (B) I love religions. Especially dead ones. -slima *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

Now, now, Alga. Wolfe is coy, but he's not all that coy--it's pretty easy to infer from interviews, fiction, and essays that Wolfe would be described religiously as Roman Catholic, generally orthodox, with a strong Chestertonian flavor and some odd but not, so far as I'm aware, unprecedented, beliefs about the Greek gods, mysterious black dogs, etc. Those comments (as in the McCaffery interview) about "I'm... but that doesn't mean what people may imagine" tie in pretty well with Wolfe's statement elsewhere (interview with Nutria, if I'm not mistaken--I could look it up) that most "Christians" know very little about Christ's life or actual theology. I'd say that for a modern person who isn't professionally engaged in talking about his religious beliefs, Wolfe's made his fairly clear. Back to Clute, I think the thing here is that despite some bad sentences, he doesn't get around to saying anything very insightful about OBW or New Sun. Thus, for old Wolfe hats it's a ho-hum review, and it doesn't (IMO) make it clear enough to new Wolfers that while you COULD start here, and it's a fine book, you probably would be better off not doing so, because it will make Long Sun a lot less fun. I think Clute's religious disagreements are part of why he always seems to take every Christic-figure in Wolfe to literally be the Second Coming. :) "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32