From: Derek Bell <dbell@maths.tcd.ie>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Typhon & Pas
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 19:06:19 +0000


[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

In message <199701232225.OAA02246@lists1.best.com>, Jim Jordan writes:
>>[My comment on the cultural and physical separation of cities by Pas]
>	This goes back to the Tower of Babel, where God did the same thing for 
>the same basic reason. Pas is a counterfeit of God.

	The whorl could be interpreted as a metaphor for life, with Green &
Blue as a metaphor for the afterlife. (Don't the colonists in Exodus enter the
tunnels through a crater in the graveyard?) In this interpretation,
Pas is a demiurge - this is contrary to Catholic teaching, no? (Then
again, Silk comes to interpretations that are wrong, so perhaps
Wolfe is making a subtle warning about interpretations.)

	Derek

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