Merger

Lee Berman · 30 Jan 2011, 22:56 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:56:18 -0500
Subject: (urth) Merger
Message-ID: <SNT123-W52E420DF1DED5F14659A7CCFE30 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: The stated purpose of the Becan Alzabo was to reunify Becan's family. He 
>even devoured his wife as he was dying. Last meal? What was the survival benefit of this?

There have been some interesting points made on both sides of the debate. But this seems like
fairly conclusive evidence of "merger". It makes little sense for a pure alzabo to go through 
the trouble of chomping Casdoe with its dying gasp; it had to toss aside an already chomped 
zooanthrope body to do so. Little sense also for a pure Becan to make this final action. Only 
for a merged Becan (and Severa)/Alzabo creature does this final action make sense.

>The alzabo might well have been engineered to allow dead humans to live on in an animal

I'm not understanding the assumption that alzabos are evolved or engineered to feed on humans.
They are alien creatures, like the notules and slugs and salamanders. If these can be used to
to kill humans without being evolved or engineered to, why not alzabo?

The fact that the alzabo appears when Agia is hiding in the attic, safe from it, might suggest
it has been called through the mirrors by Hethor. Severian later wonders why she didn't sneak
down and stab him while he was eating or at some other vulnerable time. Moreover, it is in 
Casdoe's cabin that Severian tells Agia he knows who Hethor is and that he is the source of 
the deadly beasts he has encountered. Agia assures Severian that one of Hethor's beasts will kill
him if she doesn't do it first. Later...enter alzabo.

>Alzabos whose instincts in this regard tend to be subverted  by the minds of their prey are 
>unfit alzabos, who leave fewer progeny.

More evidence, I think, that alzabos are not evolved to prey upon humans. Humans are are unique
in being both easy prey without weapons and deadly enemies with them. The alzabo's own instincts
seem better suited for hunting pure prey species. Alzabo-Becan combined instincts lead to the
death of the beast which wouldn't have happened if the prey had been a rabbit-like creature.

I think it is similar to a dog who is killed by chasing cars. Naturally evolved instincts in 
animals often become deadly when misapplied in a human-based world (as the alzabo brain has 
partially become).

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