Watts, presentiments, eponyms

maa32 · 24 Feb 2002, 00:37 · from urth-v0202.mbox · original
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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) Watts, presentiments, eponyms
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 17:37:49 -0700
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I have a saved copy of Watts' Psalm 90, so I decided I would reprint it in =
its=20
entirety here (the 1st part, anyway). Has anyone commented on how the theme=
 of=20
a saving flood in the stanza after the one that opens Shadow of the Torture=
r=20
is pretty prophetic for the text?  Here is the psalm:

					Isaac Watts Psalm 90
Part 1.=20
Man frail, and God eternal.

   1  Our God, our help in ages past,
         Our hope for years to come,
      Our shelter from the stormy blast,
         And our eternal home.

   2  Under the shadow of thy throne
         Thy saints have dwelt secure;
      Sufficient is thine arm alone,
         And our defense is sure.

   3  Before the hills in order stood,
         Or earth received her frame,
      From everlasting thou art God,
         To endless years the same.

   4  Thy word commands our flesh to dust,
         "Return, ye sons of men:"
      All nations rose from earth at first,
         And turn to earth again.

   5  A thousand ages in thy sight
         Are like an ev'ning gone;
      Short as the watch that ends the night
         Before the rising sun.

   6  [The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
         With all their lives and cares,
      Are carried downwards by the flood,
         And lost in following years.

   7  Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
         Bears all its sons away;
      They fly, forgotten, as a dream
         Dies at the op'ning day.

   8  Like flowery fields the nations stand
         Pleased with the morning light;
      The flowers beneath the mower's hand
         Lie with'ring ere 'tis night.]

   9  Our God, our help in ages past,
         Our hope for years to come,
      Be thou our guard while troubles last,
         And our eternal home.

Note how similar stanza 8 is to the conclusion of Return to the Whorl where=20
the chrasmologic writings invoke the Hyacinth and the Shepherd.  Stanza 6=20
explicitly invokes a flood that wipes out the "tribes of flesh and blood" j=
ust=20
like in Urth of the New Sun.  I am especially interested in 8 because of it=
s=20
"like flowery fields the nations stand pleased with the morning light" whic=
h=20
compares the nations to, you guessed it, vegetable matter in the form of=20
foliage that withers when the sun isn't there. In any case, the poem=20
definitely presages the flooding of Urth, and earlier stanzas also reflect =
the=20
ability of the vivimancer to recall dust to living matter.  I was fascinate=
d=20
by the flower imagery, and even if you don't buy my ideas about the Short S=
un,=20
you can read the Green Man into stanza eight.  It also occurs to me that Th=
e=20
Green Man recieves his nourishment directly from Severian's stellar body -=20
that white hole actually feeds him.  As such, a part of Severian comes to r=
est=20
in the Green Man (just as a part of Thecla comes to rest in Severian, or a=20
part of Horn comes to rest in Silk, or ... through the same sun dependent=20
association that I am willing to ascribe to Horn/Silk, a part of Severian=20
comes to rest in Silkhorn the heliophagist)  KEEP IN MIND THAT THE GREEN MA=
N=20
CAN USE THE CORRIDORS OF TIME.  I propose that Silkhorn is a type of green=20
man, and has no problem going back in time - in part because Severian has b=
een=20
assimilated through their feasting on his symbolic sun body and incorporate=
d=20
into their being.  Convenient, eh?  Horn can be every man of his kind becau=
se=20
he feasts on the sun that comes from Severian, who really is every man of h=
is=20
kind, and becomes more closely associated with him. Note the parallels betw=
een=20
Severian and Horn in the story of the man with the black blade in In Green'=
s=20
Jungles.  He loses his light and sword in a deluge, just as Severian loses =
his=20
sword and his special light at Lake Diuturna fighting Baldanders. Horn brin=
gs=20
a flood and clears out the sewer, Severian brings a flood and clears out th=
e=20
crap of the earth.

William stated my reading didn't add anything to the text for him.  For me,=
 it=20
allows us to know what happened to the people on the moon who were eaten by=20
the terraformed trees that got out of control, it allows us to know how the=20
green men came to inhabit the urth, it details the future fate of urth, it=20
reveals what happens to Horns spirit in Babbie, it makes sense of the secre=
t=20
of the inhumu, (whose feastings produce heritable genetic features in their=20
children),it explains how the vegetable inhumu can survive jumping from Blu=
e=20
to Green, it makes sense of the last Hyacinth quote, it makes sense of the=20
mysterious eucharists by applying their symbolic value to the text, it make=
s=20
sense of who is watching the narrator in those eucharist scenes, it explain=
s=20
all the similarities and differences between Urth and Blue, it explains the=20
pit scene and the subsequent powers of Horn, it explains exactly why the=20
nieghbors respect Horn (since the batch he talks with were made from his DN=
A),=20
it explains the nature of his affinity for jungle life, and it reveals that=
 it=20
really is just Silk at the end of Short Sun, and makes sense of the narrati=
ve=20
changes from one book to the next.  It makes sense of why the narrator need=
s=20
to find Seawrack, the spy of the mother who jeopardizes the fate of mankind=
. =20
It explains why his staff might be alive and people are afraid of it.  It=20
explains how his image might actually visit Inclito's mother across time so=20
that he shows up in her story (time instead of astral travel). I think that=
 it=20
adds quite a bit to a reading of short sun.  It also explains the double=20
limbed animals that are exactly like the animals of Urth.  Is a hus a=20
rhinocerus or a polyploid Alzebo?

Now, are the eponyms those white statues that move around the House Absolut=
e=20
in Claw of the Conciliator? In In Green's Jungles, Regalio seems to place s=
ome=20
importance on eponyms when he first goes back to Urth, and I'm trying to=20
figure out that scene now in a way that will justify its temporal removal f=
rom=20
the present of the text. An eponym is also a word that comes from someone's=20
name, like sandwiches or johns/crappers (according to urban legend, anyway)=
. I=20
was trying to figure out what eponym might help solve that scene.  Regalio=20
says his real name is Roger, but that means very little to me.  Roger?  Any=20
famous eponyms associated with that?

Marc Aramini



--=20
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