do the Hierogrammates care about the megatherians?

Lee Berman · 20 May 2011, 15:18 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 11:18:04 -0400
Subject: (urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?
Message-ID: <SNT123-W220B7E3214FF82B9BAC2DDCF710 at phx.gbl>

>Gerry Quinn: I don't think the 'seventeen megatherians' were anything to do with Erebus, 
>Abaia etc.  The number doesn't particularly match, but more important than that, we have 
>a book called "The Lives of the Seventeen Megatherians" which has a somewhat historical 
>feel to it, as if the story of the megatherians (whoever they were) is long over.

To go with Gerry's scenario I'd have to also accept that the number of the "Group of 17"
is a coincidence. Also that Cadroe of the 17 Stones, the black bean story etc. are 
unrelated. And that Wolfe labelling Abaia as "Great Beast" has nothing to do with the
literal translation of Megatherian. I'm disinclined to do all that. Moreover, RttW suggests
the sea monsters were well established in Severian's boyhood and I'm inclined to think their
growth required something close to the 1000 year post-Typhon history of Urth. 

I'll go out on a limb and suggest seven megatherians are named, Abaia, Erebus, Scylla, Arioch,
Ouroboros, Jurupari and Amphisboena. Did I forget any? Maybe the other 10 are unnamed. Or maybe
they are Juturna and her nine sisters. 100% speculation for fun on my part.

>James Wynn: I posit that Abaia is against Severian's Hieroian friends, but he is personally 
>unconcerned about the upcoming flood.

I like this line of thought. The New Sun's actions will allow the creation and ascension of
the angelic Hierogrammates who will displace the demonic Megatherians. But, ironically, the
creation and production of angels requires the genocide of Urth's humanity while the maintenance 
of the demon slave-masters would involve the salvation of Urth's humanity. (as Andrew mentions)

Tzadkiel tells Severian that his is a race of pawns. I take the metaphor at two levels.
Superficially, Tzadkiel is referring to the uni-directional ability of humans to move through 
time. And I love the implied chess analogy that Severian is a pawn who arrives at the end of
the chessboard (universe) and returns to the board as a higher piece with multi-directional 
time-travel abilities.

But surely Tzadkiel also implies that, as pawns,  humans are the most numerous and expendable 
pieces in the game they are playing. Of course sometimes the game CAN hinge on the actions of a
pawn. But not usually.  

The chess analogy implies there is an opposing side (who but megatherians?), with their own pawns, 
whom the Hierogrammates must defeat to achieve success. As the Hierogrammates are (presumably) closer 
to the Increate than Megatherians, given their angelic form, we are not surprised that they prevail 
in the end, as ordained. So, one way or another, perhaps by Jeff's geological mechanisms or perhaps
via something else, the dark side has been checkmated by the light side and the coming of the New Sun.

I find this chess analogy to be a satisfying model for what is happening above the human drama in 
BotNS. We pawns have our intricate stories to tell, even if we are not really so cosmically important
as we think.

p.s. James, I think the actions of Juturna (perhaps Typhon, perhaps Hethor) and the words of Master 
Ash leave little doubt that Abaia, et al. are, in fact, trying to gain control of the New Sun. I didn't 
mean to imply otherwise.

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