monsters and names

James Wynn · 26 May 2006, 17:54 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 12:54:03 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: (urth) monsters and names
Message-ID: <30656830.1148666043869.JavaMail.root at elwamui-mouette.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

b sharp says:

>Well, interesting. It seems there are at least two or three here who flout 
>the naming convention that urth humans have saint names and aliens have 
>mythological names in BotNS. So Typhon (hundred headed Greek demon), 
>Baldanders (Borges growing giant) and presumably Talos (bronze man, foe of 
>Jason) are humans in BotNS.

Coming late to this, but it is verifiably not *humans* that are named after saints.
It is citizens of the Commonwealth who are.  Ascians are not named after saints.
Alternately, Typhon's daughter (and I presume we can extrapolate the others as
well) IS named after a saint.

Later, the crew and cargo of the Whorl will not have saint names.

So were Abia, Erebus, Scylla, etc originally human or were they "aliens"? IMO
Likely they were originally human. There is certainly nothing especially
inhuman about Typhon in appearance -- except that one little thing, and that
*is* a human body he's got, right? Until the Neighbors and the Inhumi, are
there any sentient beings in the entire Sun Cycle that are positively not
human or decended from humans?

Isn't there something *Wolfe himself* wrote or said either in one of the BotNS
appendices, Castle of the Otter, or in an interview in which he discusses that
one obvious way to extend human life indefinitely is to extend growth? 
I'd bet a body part that there is, although I can't remember the location right now.

J

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