poohcarrot said:
poohcarrot said:
...and of course not forgetting Lu-Tze's other major intervention in the story that saves countless lives! The bit that stops the 100 years of bloody war before it starts.
The reason there is no 100 year civil war is because the moving turtle/tank breaks down. It breaks down because the starting lever snaps. It snaps because after being made, it was supposed to be cooled slowly, but Lu-Tze pours cold water on it, thus making the metal brittle.
But I'm sure you all knew that (even though nobody mentioned it). 8)
I'll fade back into the background again.
What you're talking about there is part of why they avoided the 100 years war, but it's not the reason it's a CATALYST. Will come back to that part of the book with the tank shortly as you want to talk about it *pats head* :twisted: Sharlene - you were asking how Brutha became so wise specifically when he absorbed the Library. That's just knowledge -
Wisdom is quite another thing. He was already becoming wise before that, from the moment he began to hear Om because he was having to challenge his own belief in the Great God from then on. By the time he'd got to Ephebe he'd had several hard, sharp knocks to his dogma-defined image of Om as Om himself was pouring scorn on all the stupid narrow 'mysteries' of his cult and so pushing Brutha into questioning his beliefs - from the start they're working on a new rendering of Omnism making it more rational, less belligerent and unquestioning and far more humane and forgiving. What Brutha is doing right from the start of the book, being provoked and inadvertently inspired by Om, is redefining his belief. He questions everything right down the line but he never stops believing even when he downright disagrees with Om because they both need each other to make sense of their world. They negotiate and develop a new understanding and in effect learn wisdom together by this process - the massive download of knowledge in Ephebe is merely complementary to that struggle for a mutual creed, so that Brutha can then set Omnia onto a more practical and rational understanding of the rest of the Disc and how to live in it. He is the first true Prophet not only because he's such a staunch and compassionate believer, but because he and Om are invested in each other and together overthrow the old ways and together make the new 'rules' and philosophy.
In the desert, with Vorbis comatose and Om terrified of one of his rival small gods stealing Brutha away from him, the god's finally driven to realisation of just how important Brutha is to him and so Om at last 'get's it'. Omnipotence and absolute faith and loyalty don't work - there has to be understanding and acceptance of the justness of belief and how the underlying philosophy works. We all see the links with the Inquisition and with Roman Catholicism in particular and how a religion goes off the rails and into 'jobsworth' territory when absolutism takes hold and the stupid, unscrupulous and psychopathic turn faith onto it's head and makes a mockery of the original ground on which belief is formed.
The desert is a metaphor familiar to the main modern monotheist behemoths of faith - one god, one way, one load of essentially common sense on how to live your life kindly and not annoy your neighbours. We say the words but we don't honour them and Thou Shalt Not Kill becomes Except When It Suits The People In Power. With Brutha and Om the new deal is forged in the desert. They have to work together and depend on each other absolutely. Vorbis is their instrument in a way, even though he has no part in their ordeal, his hijacking their feat in crossing the desert is necessary to the faith's reception and re-establishment on a surer footing which is not Brutha's spectacular rescue from the turtle but in his averting the war.
OK - the steam boat/tank.
It's just a thing - a very useful and practical thing and as such is used by people for their own ends. Urn is rather like Leonard of Quirm - he has no conception of his inventions use for military purposes, that comes from Simony. Lu-tse sabotages it yes, and that's why it's a catalyst - the actual EVENT that he needs to manipulate has to be resolved by people and people with a certain mindset. Brutha is the one who understands that war is not the answer. If it had been Vorbis on the beach alone then they would have had 100 years of war. If Simony had been on the beach alone then they would still have had 100 years of war. If Urn and his uncle had been on the beach alone then they would still have had 100 years of war. It had to be Brutha because he had the right sort of belief. Vorbis and Simony are extremist - terrorists if you like even though our sympathies are far more with Simony and even though neither of them have a belief in Om - they only see things in black and white and both only think of fighting for their own belief (or to impose it forcibly in Vorbis' case) or anti-belief if you like. Extreme atheism is as fundamentally wrong as religious terrorism - it scorns and belittles belief and counts believers as fools who need to be taught they're wrong. Didactylos is seen by Simony as a true Prophet of Science in effect. Didactylos sees himself as a blind man who knows people and how the world works. He has nothing to hang his faith on except the truth and so his dispassion cannot inspire the Turtle followers to mobilise and take action - anti-belief needs passion too and it is Simony who provides that not the Ephebians. No belief (with or without a god) is wrong unless it harms someone. It's just a philosophy and one of many ways to live your life quietly and respectfully. In this book that is the true message. It's not anti-belief - we all believe in something. It's not even anti-religion. The deal Om and Brutha sort out in the desert is a true way where the god is gentle and respectful to his believers in return for their faith and being human we like to belong to a herd or flock. The Quisition is distorted tarnished and it tramples faith into the dust and replaces it with terror. Believe it or else in other words.
Together Om and Brutha bring the faith back on track and effectively start over, working together to be wise in their faith. The Library scrolls will help with that, but they essentially have nothing to do with faith and how Omnia will fare in it's reinvention, because it's just facts and Science (and of course they're important) because the truth is subjective and belief is ultimately reassuring and what supports you through strife. When your world is falling all around you it doesn't really matter whether it's a disc or a globe doesn't it?
Your belief can sustain you through the most apalling times and it doesn't matter what name or face you give it.
