Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 07:50:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Jerry Friedman 
Subject: Re: (urth) The Best Introduction to the Mountains


--- Andy Robertson  wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jerry Friedman" 
> >
> > I don't see any kind of evidence that the Commonwealth is some kind of
> > Holy Empire.  The idea that it's somehow the heir to the Holy Roman
> Empire
> > strikes me as really sick (not that someone would have to be sick to
> make
> > the speculation, but somebody would have to be sick to see the HRE as
> so
> > divinely supported that it persists past its official dissolution as a
> > force for good).
> 
> I am surprised to find someone reading Wolfe with this sort of binary
> thinking

I'm surprised that someone can tell so much about what I think from one
comment as to draw conclusions about my literary tastes.

> The Empire was never simply a force for good.   It was *meant* (in
> Catholic
> legendarium) to be a pattern of the kingdom of heaven on Earth, with the
> Emperor being in the position of God.
> 
> Not that he would be god, or have divine powers, but that he would show
> forth the virtues of heaven as far as it was possible for a man.
> 
> Of course in reality the Empire beame utterly corrupt, and was in fact
> taken
> by the forces of Antichrist (as the Turks were thought to be)
> 
> This corruption was also worked into the legends.
> 
> Now of course Wolfe doesn't think his Commonwealh is the literal
> descendant
> of the HRE: but it is like it symbolically, because it is the bit of the
> Urth uniquely connected to Heaven - or rater to thos powers whch in
> Wolfe's
> universe are the analogs of heaven.

The idea I was responding to was that the Commonwealth *was* the literal
descendant of the HRE.  It seems we agree that that doesn't make sense. 
However, I went too far in calling the idea "really sick", so I apologize
to anyone I offended or insulted.

> **And Therefore** it is very corrupt.
> 
> If Wolfe thought to trace a historical link, it would be a joke he made.
> However, symbolically, the Commonwealth is like the HRE.

Jerry Friedman

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