Subject: (urth) Alzabo

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:54:03 +0000

Has nobody but me considered the possibility that Severian's presence
has rekindled Becan's mind in the alzabo (much the way he rekindles
Thecla in himself) so that Becan actually overrides the alzabo's
instincts to protect his family?

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

---

From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:16:47 +0000

> instincts to protect his family?

That's the thing about Severian, isn't it? As risk of evoking Dionysus 
and getting Lee all stirred up <wink>, he's just that sort of character. 
If sailors come up against him, the masts might turn to snakes, the ship 
fill with ivy, and the sailors go mad and turn into dolphins. Every part 
of the book occurs in Severian's presence and anything can happen when 
he is there.

However, the following is Severian's perspective on the event and it 
DOES seem to suggest that what is happening with Becan Alzabo is the 
merging of logic and instinct, of the interests of the soul and the body:

"When the alzabo rushed at the zoanthrops, its instinct commanded it to 
preserve its prey from others; when Becan did so, his instinct, I 
believe, was to preserve his wife and child. Both performed the same 
act, and they actually performed it in the same body. Did the higher and 
lower instinct join hands at the back of reason? Or is there but one 
instinct standing behind all reason, so that reason sees a hand to 
either side?"

Consider that the Becan Alzabo did not see the zoanthrops as food 
requiring protection. Only Casdoe and Little Severian.

u+16b9

---

From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:34:25 +0000

> instincts to protect his family?

If that were the case, why would it make a bargain to leave them for the 
night instead of just leaving?

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

---

From: Son Of Witz <sonofwitz at butcherbaker.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:49:24 +0000

On Jan 28, 2011, at 3:34 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> If that were the case, why would it make a bargain to leave them for the night instead of just leaving?

he hasn't quite "woken up" yet?