Alzabo

James Wynn · 28 Jan 2011, 22:16 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:16:47 -0600
Subject: (urth) Alzabo
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=xzOBn0j8sB1X_9=BwMZ6fLfZYY7cy=wgqRRPK at mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTi=xzOBn0j8sB1X_9=BwMZ6fLfZYY7cy=wgqRRPK at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4D43404F.1060709 at gmail.com>

On 1/28/2011 3:54 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> Has nobody but me considered the possibility that Severian's presence
> has rekindled Becan's mind in the alzabo (much the way he rekindles
> Thecla in himself) so that Becan actually overrides the alzabo's
> instincts to protect his family?

That's the thing about Severian, isn't it? As risk of evoking Dionysus 
and getting Lee all stirred up <wink>, he's just that sort of character. 
If sailors come up against him, the masts might turn to snakes, the ship 
fill with ivy, and the sailors go mad and turn into dolphins. Every part 
of the book occurs in Severian's presence and anything can happen when 
he is there.

However, the following is Severian's perspective on the event and it 
DOES seem to suggest that what is happening with Becan Alzabo is the 
merging of logic and instinct, of the interests of the soul and the body:

"When the alzabo rushed at the zoanthrops, its instinct commanded it to 
preserve its prey from others; when Becan did so, his instinct, I 
believe, was to preserve his wife and child. Both performed the same 
act, and they actually performed it in the same body. Did the higher and 
lower instinct join hands at the back of reason? Or is there but one 
instinct standing behind all reason, so that reason sees a hand to 
either side?"

Consider that the Becan Alzabo did not see the zoanthrops as food 
requiring protection. Only Casdoe and Little Severian.

u+16b9

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