Seawrack and the Mother

Lee Berman · 01 Oct 2012, 18:59 · from 2012-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2012 14:59:59 -0400
Subject: (urth) Seawrack and the Mother
Message-ID: <SNT123-W60AD62388C1233E8011148CF870 at phx.gbl>

>Antonio Pedro Marques: only a few groups have evolved to 
>have their newborn be miniatures of the adults (and yes, among those groups 
>is the one comprising reptiles/birds/mammals).
>It may be relevant that latin _larva_ means something like wraith/shade/(scary mask).

Thank you. Yes, I think all that is relevant. I do think Wolfe uses many of the intelligent
creatures in his stories to point out not only our anthropocentric view of the universe but
our mammalian- and vertebrate-centric views also.

The Latin definition of larva you give reminds me very much of the Arabic translation of "khaibit",
being a ghostly shadow or shade. Given the title of the first Sun Series book I find this to be
significant evidence that Severian was, indeed, always intended to be some sort of clone.

> Are Galatea and Pygmalion incestuous?
>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes- No, because Pygmalion did not give life to Galatea

Heh, though I think Adam and Eve are incestuous. Given that she was cloned from cells of Adam's
rib, they are identical (almost) twins. I have a half-baked theological theory that Original Sin
involved the sin of incestuous lust, hence the fig leaves being the first response to "knowledge".

Thus you have the judeo-christian reversal on the surrounding religions, in which the gods were 
incestuous but the people were not. I think religion is a better motivator if sin and the blame for 
it goes to the people, rather than the gods.

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