From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: RE: (urth) Gnostic Wolfe
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 09:36:04 -0800

Adam and Tom exchanging ...

> >> I don't see any particular connection between the Long Sun 
> >> books and Gnosticism, either positive and negative.
> > 
> > Silk holds the "primary" Gnostic belief - that the god(s) of this 
> > world/Whorl are false,
> 
> But this is not specific to Gnosticism, but true for any 
> monotheist in a polytheistic world--like Silk.

For clarity:

The "Gnostic model" of the Long Sun books is this:

In Wolfe's "major" works, he presents settings in an orthodox
Catholic universe in which "other" religious traditions can be
literalized.

tBotNS portrays a world in which Kabbala is literally true; 
the "Soldier" books portray a world in which paganism -- sc.
Greek myth -- is literally true. And in the Long Sun books,
he is portraying a world, set against a larger, orthodox
Catholic universe, in which Gnosticism (or at least one form
of it) is literally true.

To summarize how a form of Gnosticism is literalized in the
Long Sun books:

All things (the whole larger universe in which the "Sun" 
books are, overall, set) emanate from the one True God 
(Silk's Outsider). From those "emanations," a Demiurge 
(Pas), with the help of other "Archons" (Pas' family and 
the lesser gods) have made a false, material world (the 
Whorl). In such a world, the only way in which humans and 
the True God can approach each other is by an act of Gnosis 
(Silk's enlightenment), for which a human may and must 
prepare himself (Silk's discipline and religious training), 
but which is still ultimately an act of the True God.

Zat make sense?

--Blattid


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