do the Hierogrammates care about the megatherians?

James Wynn · 25 May 2011, 19:42 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 14:42:44 -0500
Subject: (urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTik1FwgvThZ6ZM=enJ3gpoXwn9kzTg at mail.gmail.com>
References: <BANLkTik1FwgvThZ6ZM=enJ3gpoXwn9kzTg at mail.gmail.com>
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Now my interest is peaked. At first I thought you were thinking of 
Zephyrus. I think Wolfe *did* riff on that in The Book of the Long Sun. 
But the comment about having a lot of heads suggests you mean someone else.

On 5/25/2011 2:08 PM, Nick Lee wrote:
> Certainly the tale of Mars, Romuls, and Remus, lends a lot to "The 
> Tale of the Boy Called Frog." I don't know whether or not 
> Andre-Druissi first came up with this bizarre derivation for "Spring 
> Wind," but Wolfe didn't need to make it up. "Spring Wind" refers to a 
> completely different deity. I believe that Wolfe intends this 
> connection. He certainly alludes to it in UotNS, and there may be a 
> connection with "The Tale of the Master and His Student," you know, 
> /Thesis/.
>
> Certainly these stories can have multiple meanings. I don't think they 
> are simply there to fill the pages, and they may help in understanding 
> the books they inhabit.
>
> For a while, I thought Frog might refer to Severian and Fish to 
> Baldanders. One being liminal and capable of living on land and 
> underwater, the other eventually growing too large/evil to survive on 
> land. It also solves the Severa problem if Baldanders is Severian's 
> brother (or sister. . . Baldanders as transgendered: soon another), 
> but I don't think there's enough textual evidence to make this 
> connection. It's just a fun theory for now. Also, Borges's Baldanders 
> has the tale of a fish. Some species of fish change their sex. So do 
> some Frogs, but Severian is a known bisexual. Also consider Typhon. He 
> could be Spring Wind, but in an allegorical sense he is only /trying/ 
> to be. Spring Wind has more heads, for instance. Severian is the one 
> who succeeds in becoming an avatar of that deity.

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