planetary problems

Lee Berman · 28 Dec 2010, 20:41 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:41:27 -0500
Subject: (urth) planetary problems
Message-ID: <SNT123-W130E2C9BB046422174AD23CF010 at phx.gbl>

>Jordon Flato: To me, it is just irresistible to conclude that the Mother is connected with 
>Scylla/Erebus/Abaia and also to the consciousness contacted by the Cumean.  Is it possible 
>Blue had it's own version of a Conciliator in the past?  How ironic that if the Cumean was
>attempting to contact an old consciousness on Blue, a planet which may have already seen it's 
>own 'conciliator' facilitated flood, she was doing so in the presence of Urth's conciliator.

I think you are exactly on target with this, Jordon. Fomalhaut and Pisces imply there is some-
thing fishy going on there...heh...well, maybe just something oceanic? Probably both.

>James Wynn: Well, that's not really what I meant, and I suppose you know that. But for clarity, 
>I meant that if Wolfe had intended to imply that inhumi were _active_ on the Urth of Severian, 
>apart from the Rajan's trips, the Rajan should have met some of those others--especially if they 
>were descendants of the inhumi who traveled with him....The thing is --and the Rajan makes this 
>quite clear to Hide-- an inhumi in dream travel is human. Every bit human. Because they have a human 
>soul. So IF an inhumi in dream-travel can reproduce with with a human, then the children would be human. 
>Not blood bats, you see.

Argh! James you are so close to seeing what I am saying. First, if Wolfe was to actively show inhumi
on Urth it would betray everything BotNS has built up. They are entirely hidden. we can only deduce
their presence; we can never see them. Not on Urth.

Second, the Biblical explanation for the Flood continues to be ignored. I don't understand this. There
is such a willingness to associate Severian with Jesus and such a resistance to connect him to the more 
immediate biblical event his actions associate with. I remember in a recent discussion, Antonio said he
thought of Jesus first and foremost as a teacher. Is this true of Severian?

Severian is patterned after Greek heroes. They are another way of saying "Men Of Reknown". Big guys with 
special powers who have mixed parentage with the gods. They were heroes to Greeks. And Sumerians and 
others. But they were evil Nephilim to the Hebrews. Sons of fallen angels and human women. Like Goliath
the larger-than-life heroes of outsider groups are the evil enemies of the Hebrews in their Bible.

The Biblical Flood was due to the "wickedness" of men but there is the strong implication the wickedness
stems from demonic matings and a corruption of the human race. I don't know if or how inhumi made it to
Urth and were able to reproduce but DNA compatibility would suggest, just as you do, that they would need 
a conversion to being fully human to do so.

But is it fully? Consider the lesson of Dr. Veil in 5HoC about abos. The one difference between abos and
humans, no matter how closely imitated, is that abos would retain their ability to shapeshift/imitate.
And we see that the supposedly fully human Inhumi on Urth do go back to being Inhumi when they get back to
Blue.

The Bible associates the Flood with demons and giants. Dr. Talos' play does the same.  Blue and Green have 
implications of Floods and have demons and giants all around (vines and trees; inhumi and Mother). Urth 
basically NEEDS demons and giants to warrant a Flood, so...where/what are they?

In regard to blood bats I am not insisting they are inhumi. Wolfe may not even have thought of them during the
writing of BotNS. I am suggesting they may imply a demonic presence on Urth. They leave their marks but are never 
seen. There is the veiled process of blood sharing noted for khaibits and Mamas, who are enslaved people of Urth. 
There is a weird bat-like image on the cheek of a chatelaine during a Thecla dream sequence. There is a frequent
"sunken cheek" appearance of BotNS characters. (demons and the Lilith/Jahi myth track directly from Lamia to vampires)

As previously noted, if there is a more direct connection between Urth and Green per Marc's theory it might allow
for actual non-human inhumi to show up on Urth. But we can't know the exact mechanics of it. Just as for Quetzal 
on the Whorl, the whole thing is completely hush-hush. The biggest secret there is.

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