The Morality of the Hierogrammates

Paul B · 23 Jul 2007, 22:46 · from 2007-July.txt.gz

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From: pb.stuff at gmail.com (Paul B)
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:46:15 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Morality of the Hierogrammates
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	<10878.72.171.0.142.1185228836.squirrel at brunians.org>
	<3e1fa2e90707231522l4a5e1fe6n94e704a65a1b8882 at mail.gmail.com>
	<8476d0320707231527r56f6b885s4bf6e5d4f48e89a3 at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <3e1fa2e90707231546o21958f7fp59fbc82dac4a64b4 at mail.gmail.com>

Right you are, I'd forgotten about that bit.  That said, Baldanders seems to
mean that the heat generated by a stronger gravitational pull would heat
Urth and melt the water.  Baldanders isn't likely to lie, but again it's
curious where that much water comes from.

He doesn't mention tectonic shifts, and I admit to not being physicist
enough to challenge the idea, but it seems like gravitationally-motivated
shifts would be even more catastrophic than what is described.
(Incidentally, a change in centripetal force in newtonian mechanics would
drastically change the equilibrium orbits of the whole solar system)

Furthermore, it's of possible interest that his scientific expertise has
been supplied by the aliens, to a large extent.

On 7/23/07, Bruce Hayles <brucehayles at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure what the confusion is about. Baldanders says that the
> flood is caused by  gravitational forces from the New Sun in Urth of
> the New Sun XLII.
>
> On 7/23/07, Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> wrote:
> > That's fine, but it's about as difficult to explain sudden global
> tectonic
> > shifts than it is to explain a flood.
> >
> >
> > On 7/23/07, brunians at brunians.org <brunians at brunians.org> wrote:
> > > > I recently read the archive discussion about the theodicean aspect
> of
> > > > BotNS,
> > > > and the morality and necessity of the flood that accompanies the new
> > sun.
> > > > One thing struck me, and if it's old hat, then I've not been
> thorough
> > > > enough
> > > > in reading the archives.  That thing is the precipitous pace of the
> > flood,
> > > > which apparently takes Urth in a matter of days and surprises those
> at
> > the
> > > > House Absolute by the time that Severian shows up.  A flood of
> Biblical
> > > > proportions, if you will.
> > > >
> > > > Now, one thing that has been jokingly asked of that one, can be
> > seriously
> > > > asked of this: where does the water come from?
> > >
> > > The continents are drowned, new continents rise where the oceans are,
> the
> > > oceans move around. No new water required.
> > >
> > >
> > > .
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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