Baldanders

Macronaut · 18 May 2006, 22:35 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: macronaut at yahoo.com (Macronaut)
Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 15:35:35 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Baldanders
In-Reply-To: <1f7617370605181136u363e3425y98318ccfd1598497 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <20060518223535.50061.qmail at web51109.mail.yahoo.com>

>Thought for rumination: in the Lupiverse, if you
>strive to be more than "mere" human, you become a
>monster; while if you strive to be more fully human,
>you become more than human.

I think that's an excellent and intruiging observation
-- it certainly applies to Sev, maybe to the green
man, and maybe to others like Tzadkiel or the people
of Yesod.

You might also be able to argue that this difference
is reflected in where people draw their powers -- that
when you become more human your power comes from the
Increate rather than technology.  Sev draws not on
devices to do things but on star power that he uses by
some unknown means.  Sev and the green man travel the
corridors of time without apparent aid of technology. 
People like Sev and the green man don't use devices to
accomplish things -- they just have some innate or
learned ability.

There are certainly problems with this theory -- the
heirodules clearly use technology for time travel and
all the rest, and are impliedly closer to the
Increate.  And the undines have innate power to travel
time, invade dreams, etc. and yet are surely not very
human (though I agree they may start out that way,
albeit albino and with webby toes, a la Idas). 
Nevertheless, I think there's a kernel of something
true there.  Maybe the heirodules are less than human
-- tools to help us evolve.  And the undines can be
ambiguous under this analysis too.

Macronaut

--- Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:

> > I think this is part of Wolfe's
> > commentary, found throughout the books, on the
> > morality of so-called "transhumanism."  Depending
> on
> > the morality that motivated the alteration, the
> > alteration is beautiful (ie. the green man) or
> > perverse (Typhon, Baldanders).  There may be a
> third
> > category, morality that is simply alien -- Im
> thinking
> > of the undines -- reflected in characters who are
> > sometimes beautiful, sometimes terrifying or ugly,
> > sometimes both simultaneously.Ooooh, nice take.
> 
> I had the impression that the undines were women
> once who'd gone through a process like-but-unlike
> what Baldanders is doing to himself: like, in its
> main
> physical effects; unlike, because they allowed it to
> be done to them in service to another, while
> Baldanders
> is doing it to himself in service _of_ himself. This
> takes
> on fuller meaning with what you've just said: they
> are
> both beautiful and terrifying, both transhuman and
> monstrous.
> 
> Clearly to a Christian (i.e. Wolfe), transhumance
> cannot be _of itself_ monstrous: the new body of the
> general resurrection is to be transhuman (though I
> distrust anyone's specific ideas of _how_).
> 
> Thought for rumination: in the Lupiverse, if you
> strive
> to be more than "mere" human, you become a monster;
> while if you strive to be more fully human, you
> become
> more than human.
> 
> --Dan'l
> 
> -- 
> I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who
> fear him.
>                         -- St Teresa of Avila
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
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