Lives of the Great Beasts

Milton Jackson · 04 Jul 2010, 13:50 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: miltonwjackson at gmail.com (Milton Jackson)
Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2010 09:50:36 -0400
Subject: (urth) Lives of the Great Beasts
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Oh, i completely agree about the existence of large intelligent creatures
under the sea. baldanders and Juturna confirm that just by their existence.
(As an aside, I like the fact that Wolfe acknowledged a human the size of a
sauropod dinosaur or a whale could only exist in the water.) Anyway,
wondering if Erebus and Abai actually exist was just idl speculation on my
part. Other characters do confirm their existennce, but the fact that Wolfe
never brings even the shadow of one into the story and describes them as
being of a size that, under the stresses of Earth's gravity, would be
problematic (thoguh as you note, this could be a hyperbolic description) at
best has caused me to speculate if they might not be some kind of Wizard of
Oz-style distractions. You're right though. Wolfe probably intends Erebus
and Abaia to actually exist in the story.

On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 5:33 AM, Gerry Quinn <gerryq at indigo.ie> wrote:

>  *From:* Milton Jackson <miltonwjackson at gmail.com>
>  >I''ve always wondered. Do you guys think Erebus and Abaia actually
> exist, or are they perhaps some kind of boogeymen like the Green Knight
> dreamed up to instill fear in the land dwellers? They never actually come
> into the story, and the logistics of something of their size existing on
> Earth are rather hard to grasp. Even living entirely in water, they would be
> subject to the laws of gravity as we know them. Gravity on Earth would
> greatly restrict their movements and cause the blood pressure needed to keep
> all their cells nourished with necessary oxygen
> to be astronomical. For these reasons, I've always wondered if Wolfe ever
> intended them to be legitimate characters in the story at all.
>
> I don't see any real reason to disbelieve it.  Typhon confirms their
> existence, as someone else does (the Autarch or Jonas, I'm not sure
> which) and one of them seems to control Ascia.  Baldanders is an aspiring
> sea giant, and Juturna exists too.  Perhaps Erebus and Abaia are not truly
> as large as mountains, but there are certainly large intelligent creatures
> in the sea.
>
> - Gerry Quinn
> .
>
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