From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v010.n036
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 16:31:02 

>How do you know that? I think Matthew gets it very wrong, and on purpose. I
>think he totally invents the ties to Zoroastrianism (the Magi) and Osiris
>(the flight to Egypt) for the very understandable reason that he wants to
>emphasize the afterlife (there being no real Jewish connection, and that of
>the Persians and the Egyptians being strong and powerful). There is
>absolutely no evidence for Herod's slaughter of baby boys. Matthew is a
>fabulator, much like Wolfe. The other gospeleers are quite different.

What Nutria and I are saying is that whatever the truth value of "Matthew
invented some stuff" is, it's unlikely that WOLFE thinks he did, which is an
argument for giving THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN a huge benefit of the doubt as to
whether it matches up with the "real" events (never mind the fact that we're 
all discussing events that, of course, are purely fictional--the question is
if the fiction is that "The Book of Silk" tells what really happened to Silk).
Which also brings in the possible notion of other actors than Horn and Nettle
in the composition of "The Book of Silk," acting in a Holy Spirit-type role,
although that's more debateable.  Much as Wolfe plays with -coy- narrators who
don't tell everything that's going on, I'd be surprised if it turns out that
"The Book of Silk's" version of events doesn't actually match up with what 
people say in Short Sun--meanings may change, but the events I'll bet stay the
same.

Hmm...  The Paul analogy might be really fruitful--isn't Paul's illness 
mentioned in Galatians sometimes supposed to have been a vision problem or
even the _loss of an eye_?



"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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