From: douge@nti.com (Doug Eigsti)
Subject: Re: (whorl) mouse vis a vis rat pt 2
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 10:33:54 


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


Alga writes:

> 
> But I can't resist one more reminder. Who do we KNOW was worshipped on Urth
> from the time of Typhoon on? Why, the Conciliator, that's who, though it's
> not formal worship. And who do we KNOW who coos? Thecla, that's who. And
> not for a minute do I think that Wolfe would create a character with a
> trademark coo (it's a family trait, her sister coos too), and then be so
> careless as to assign this coo to another character in a related book--even
> if, as some of you suggest, that character is the BVM.
> 
> I grant that the Sevarian is not the Increate (neither is the Outsider),
> but by the end of the Urth series he is certainly as much of a god as JC is
> thought to be on this Earth--I think some of you want parallels to be too
> literal . Remember how the Brown Book twists things....
> 
> -alga-  
> 

	Alga,

	You may have something with the cooing of Thecla. This has never 
registered through my readings of NEW SUN. Do you have the reference so 
that I can check it out?
	I still see an issue with the Outsider as THE Creator. My 
understanding is that the Increate is THE Creator, making the Outsider 
the Increate:

	(IV, p264.9) "...who shaped our forebears from the mud of the Short
	Sun Whorl." 

	This citation, and Silk's progressive realization that the 
Outsider is the "God of gods", leads me to believe that no mere mortal 
could take on the role of the Outsider. The Conciliator may have been 
worshiped but was not truly divine.

	I am warming up to the idea of Severian making a cameo, 
especially if I can locate those "coo" references, mainly because it 
would be a great inside joke. A joke that I somehow missed. Does that 
make me an outsider?

=Talon=