Abaia & co.

nastler · 19 May 2006, 08:32 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: nastler at yahoo.dk (nastler)
Date: Fri, 19 May 2006 10:32:26 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: (urth) Abaia & co.
In-Reply-To: <002b01c67b0f$8cd78be0$043ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>
Message-ID: <20060519083226.99525.qmail at web54205.mail.yahoo.com>

I'm enjoying the reheated discussion about Baldanders
and the megatherians.
Baldanders as a "kind of baby Abia" is an important
theory, but what if he IS Abia? This has been proposed
before (I can't find the ref, but it must have been
Borski, right?), and Sev as eventual Lake God
(Oannes?)

--- "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net> skrev:

> mourning's glory quoted Dan'l and wrote:
> 
> >> > I do wonder about this. Is there any specific
> (textual) reason to
> >> > suppose that the Megatherians, at least some of
> them, _don't_
> >> > survive the coming of the White Fountain?
> Thematically it makes
> >> > some sense, but it also makes thematic sense
> that at least some
> >> > _do_ survive --
> >
> >Survive, yes; thrive, no. "Their power surpasses
> understanding, and I know
> >now that they could crush us in a day if it were
> not that they count only
> >enslavement, and not annihilation, as victory." So
> if a flood wiped out all
> >of their current slaves (the Ascians), as well as
> most of their potential
> >future ones (everyone else), they probably wouldn't
> even stay -- certainly,
> >unless they were irretrievably stranded, they would
> have little reason to
> >prolong their mission.
> 
> This is one of those areas where Wolfe strains my
> credulity a tad thin. I
> mean, Abaia & co. are reputed to be literally as big
> as mountains. Even
> Jonas affirmed that improbable size. I don't know if
> the upheaval of
> continents occasioned by the passage of the white
> fountain would harm a
> "mountain" or not, but if they did survive and
> wanted to leave Ushas, how
> could something(s) that big ever get off the planet?
> If they did die with
> Urth, there must have been a monumental stench in
> the early days of Ushas.
> 
> Typhon said something that implied that they had not
> been on Urth in his
> era. "But I have lived almost a day [since Severian
> revived him] and have
> sent my thought into far places. There are powers in
> the seas now who would
> rule. They will become our slaves, and the hordes of
> the north are theirs."
> (SWORD. chapter XXVI) That "now" suggests to me that
> they were something new
> to him.
> 
> The undines as "brides" of Abaia strikes me as
> ludicrous unless bride is
> meant metaphorically, in the sense that nuns are
> said to be brides of
> Christ. Juturna was big -- about sixty feet tall at
> the Cephissus -- but
> still quite small in comparison to a mountain.
> Undines as sexual playthings?
> On the last day of Urth, Baldanders had grown to
> about twelve feet tall, and
> the rest of his body seemed to be in proportion to
> his height. His eardrums
> had grown so thick he was almost deaf. Even so, as a
> sexual partner for
> Juturna, I don't think he would measure up.
> 
> As for Severian and Juturna; perhaps I lack
> sufficient imagination, but I
> just don't see him as being of much use to that
> scarlet-eyed hussy. <g>
> 
> -Roy
> 
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