URTH |
From: m.driussi@genie.com Subject: (urth) Re: Dr. Talos' Play Date: Thu, 20 Nov 97 02:15:00 GMT [Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works] Reply: Item #0905837 from URTH@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00# A few quick notes (because I just can't stop myself): 1) I say the play has seven acts and they probably describe a divine week, with the final act coming on (New) Sunday. The Autarch is Saturn (Saturday); Jahi is Venus (Friday); and so on. We never see the last act of the play, which is too bad, but it would be an interesting exercise to "reconstruct" it from the reality of deluge Urth/post-deluge Ushas. 2) alga has said before that the play is more about the =Persian= creation myth than either the Hebrew or Sumerian. (Does Sumer have Titan-like Nephilim? I don't recall offhand, unless those shadowy "judge" characters of the underworld who never really appear in the main stories.) 3) I think the play is quite gnostic at the mythic level; I think it shows a lot of the dynamic between Severian and women (especially Agia and Dorcas, who really are Lilith and Eve) at the psychological level; I think it is constantly being acted out in the course of all five books. =mantis=