From: douge@nti.com (Doug Eigsti)
Subject: Re: (whorl) Silk vis a vis God
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 12:35:48 


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

Alga,

	I'll have to chime in on the side of Nutria. The Outsider is 
better supported in the text as being the supreme being, The Creator:
	
(IV, p284.9) "...who shaped our forebears from the mud of the Short Sun 
Whorl."
	
(IV,p341.-5) "created Pas"

	No one would like to see Severian make a cameo in LONG SUN more
than I. I cannot, however, place Severian in the role of the Increate. 
Concilliator, yes. It is easier to accommodate the one difficult text you
quoted, with the male and female voices, by incorporating God's triune
nature, as Nutria has, than to assume that Severian is the One True God. 
For this is the conclusion Silk comes to. His struggle with his beliefs 
is one of the key themes in the book. Severian just does not fit. I would 
love to see further evidence to the contrary. If it's there I missed it 
completely.

=Talon=


One tart without so much rat in it later... (Monty Python)