From: "Endymion9" <endymion9@mindspring.com>
Subject: (whorl) BotLS/BotSS Christian themes
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 17:46:55 

First of all let me state that I am a Christian.  I was raised in the
Baptist church and switched to a Charismatic church later.

I've been reading but avoiding jumping in the Christian themes discussions
but wasn't really sure why I had an aversion to thinking of the LS/SS books
in this light.  On the way to work I felt some thoughts formulate and now
feel ready to join in.

The LS/SS books do not work for me as a story that parallels the trinity and
the progression of a Christian towards Christlikeness.
I can buy Silk being a Christlike figure in LS.  He shows great compassion
towards his enemies (The Ayuntmiento, the Travagaunti) and encourages people
to be the *best* that they can be.  He does some questionable things but so
did Jesus in some people's minds (Overturning the moneychangers table,
eating and drinking with sinners, etc.).

I can buy Horn being a disciple of the Christlike figure.  He aspires to be
like Silk.  He has compassion for his people (New Viron).  And in OBW he is
a very human person trying to live up to what his "god" desires of him.  He
has failings but is striving for the *best* life.

In IGJ, Horn has already been "filled with the spirit" of Silk and continues
to display more Christlike attitudes.  He loves his enemies as Silk did (The
inhumi, the citizens of Soldo, etc.).  He tries to inspire the citizens of
Blanko to live the *best* life.

In RttW this all falls apart (for me).  If the end of RttW preceded IGJ I
could see it.  I could see Wolfe telling the story of how it really feels to
be possessed with a god or "filled with the spirit" and could see it as the
struggles to give up your human failings and allow the "god" to begin to
control your life, maybe even with some violent rebellings.

But what kind of Christ/Holy Spirit figure is this we get in the end?
A Christian nightmare.  The love of the inhumi is gone as
Jahlee is kicked to death, inhumi are lured into a slaughter.  Also
Silk/horn
writes off the people of Blue/Green as not worth saving and deserts them.

So, I can buy this as a great science fantasy (what the publishers used to
label TBotNS when I first bought it), or as a story trying to merge
Christianity with Greek Mythology and all other world religions to show that
the Christian God is nothing special, just one of many or an ancient
astronaut etc. But not as the true Christian story in the Holy Bible.  It
does not work in that regard for me.  The creature we get at the end of the
story is less Christlike than either the earlier Silk or Horn IMHO.

Dennis/Endy
http://home.mindspring.com/~endymion9/index.htm


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