# Alzabo *The Urth list — 4 messages, 4 voices, 28 Jan 2011* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Dan'l Danehy-Oakes *28 Jan 2011, 21:54* 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 ``` --- ### James Wynn *28 Jan 2011, 22:16 · in reply to Dan'l Danehy-Oakes* > On 1/28/2011 3:54 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote: > 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? That's the thing about Severian, isn't it? As risk of evoking Dionysus and getting Lee all stirred up , 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 --- ### Jeff Wilson *28 Jan 2011, 23:34 · in reply to Dan'l Danehy-Oakes* > On 1/28/2011 3:54 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote: > 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? 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 > ``` --- ### Son Of Witz *28 Jan 2011, 23:49 · in reply to Jeff Wilson* > On 1/28/2011 3:54 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote: >> 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? > 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? ---