The Cumaean

Lee Berman · 10 May 2013, 00:38 · from 2013-May.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 9 May 2013 20:38:08 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Cumaean
Message-ID: <BLU175-W47369D790A4D1160A99D7ACFA50 at phx.gbl>

> And there does seem to be a somewhat organic nature
> to the interior of the ship

>Jeff Wilson: .I agree, it might even be made largely of wood!

Heh, well, there is that which I had considered (IIRC, ostensibly
the wood decks are supposed to be for cold resistance?)

But I was thinking more about how the inside of the ship changes and
adjusts to its current inhabitants, how Tzadkiel's voice when first
heard by Severian seems to emanate from everywhere and also that
flying thing which sprays Severian with what is later called digestive
fluid.

Initially I assumed the flying thing wanted to eat Severian itself,
though it doesn't. But what if it served the Ship as an analog to the 
gastric parietal cells which secrete acid in our stomach. That might make 
Sidero analogous to an immune cell while jibers would be analogous
to cancer cells, etc. Ah, well, I guess it all hinges on whether the Ship
looks like an island-sized angelic being when seen from a distance.

>When continents founder even Leviathan maybe left high and dry.

Hm yep. Also, there are suggestions that some of the megatherians on
Urth live in/under the continents, not just in the ocean. Had be a way
of getting rid of them also.

>Jerry Friedman: So even if the New Sun was ten times brighter than Old Sun 
>(Leigh Brackett moment there), the sea monsters wouldn't have had to move much >deeper.  Of course if they were caught by surprise, stunned by those tides and 
>earthquakes, and the like...

Well, I do think the BotNS was intended, in part, to bring a bit of science
into the stories of ancient mythology and the Bible. But how Noah's flood was able to rid the earth of ancient evil, demonic beings and the Nephilim offspring is not covered so clearly in this story. We are given the continents foundering, the "waves of gravitation", the flood waters themselves, the warmth, the light of the New Sun, and perhaps even the suggestion of a massive change in salinity of the oceans. I guess we'll have to make due with those
things.

When we first meet Juturna, she is a fresh-water "fish" so maybe that's how she survives in the de-salinized waters of Ushas. Of course mythical Abaia is specifically a fresh-water eel....And The Mother seems to be doing well in the golden light of Blue.....I dunno.

Oh well, anyway... I think science will only take us so far on this question. I think we ultimately just have to say, "well, Noah's Flood worked in such and such a way on earth so Severian's Flood worked in a similar physical/spiritual way on Urth.

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