And Now For Something Completely

Lee Berman · 17 Nov 2011, 03:41 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:41:57 -0500
Subject: (urth) And Now For Something Completely
Message-ID: <SNT123-W11F65D98E9CFD5769D2F67CFC70 at phx.gbl>

>On 11/16/2011 6:07 PM, Ant?nio Pedro Marques wrote: 
> The part where Scylla mentions the kind of stuff she did in Typhon's 
> time and says: "Eat sheep. Eat boy.". Now, I did know the typhons were 
> wicked to no end, but anthropophagy?! 

Heh. And I think you correctly refrain from calling it cannibalism. It has

been a topic of debate, but I don't think the Typhons were human. They think

of humans and sheep along the same lines.  Domesticated animals for slaughter 

and consumption.

>James Wynn: She is not talking about her life on Urth. She is talking about her 

>life in the Mainframe. She is saying that her siblings and her mother were like 

>slaves with Pas. She is saying that Pas didn't feed her. She fed herself on 

>sacrifices of animals and children. 

James, I don't quite understand this. How are computer programs fed by animal/

human sacrifices? If the sacrifices fulfil some electronic psychological need

in the Typhons isn't it safe to conclude that they developed this need when 

they were flesh and blood bodies on Urth (and/or other planets in the empire).

I lean to Antonio's interpretation.  I lean to Antonio's interpretation.  I lean to Antonio's interpretation that they were eating sheep and people before

they were uploaded to Mainframe. They were apparently reprogrammed to request 

only animal sacrifices from Mainframe. Echidna was able to shuck that off and

give Musk a nice roasting. The bones under Scylla's lake (and the fish eating

Mamelta?) suggest Scylla also may have retained her psychological taste for human

flesh. And of course if she possesses someone she can enjoy a nice human meal

in visceral form.

I think we see this continued on Blue. The Mother, who tracks nicely to Echidna,

is using Seawrack to lure sailors to their deaths and eating them. After spending

enough time with Horn, Seawrack decides eating sailors isn't right and decides to

stick with fish. I conclude both Blue and Green are planets designed for the breeding 

of and feeding on humans. At least on Blue we have a fighting chance.

I'm not sure about Typhon himself. He tells Severian he'll be sent tribute of women

and young boys, but the implication seems sexual. The hidden painting of Pas supports 

this idea. My guess is that after Typhon had his fun, they were sacrificed and put on 

the barbecue (or tossed in the ocean?) for Echidna, Scylla and maybe others. I'd 

guess it was some aspect of the Outsider who reprogrammed Pas to allow animal sacrifices

only on The Whorl.

>James: Although, it is true that Cilinia did conspire against her father with megatherian 

>Scylla.

I don't get the idea that Cilinia and Scylla are completely separate beings who must

conspire together to cooperate. To me they seem aspects/copies of the same being. Like so many

other god/monster mythical related characters in the Sun Series, there is a sense of being

a plural entity which is a concept so foreign to us that we can't quite grasp it (just like

the ambiguous gender issue). We only have one of each, but they can multiply their bodies and 

spirits in ways we just aren't. 

(once again an explanation for the complexity and confusion found regarding godsin our own 

earthly myths)

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