Black Hole Sun

I tend to think of them as home grown - Abaia as maybe the first giant (or maybe just the guy who was meaner than the first giant, if you get my drift), and I'm really taken with the idea that Erebus is a "chem"/giant robot/machine intelligence now. He might then be a leftover from first-empire days. Why is he in Antarctica? Why, so the chips don't overheat of course! <g> Scylla and Arioch? Oh who cares. Let's face it - they just don't have the Q Rating the other two do. It was a bad career move on Arioch's part to leave Moorcock - he was a star there.

I can see it. A "white fountain" is a wormhole, which is (or was, I'm hardly current) conceived of as the opposite of a black hole. On the theory that black holes are drains into other universes and white holes are drains from other universes, one could imagine some physical interaction whereby the white fountain adds more stuff than the black hole takes away. (At first I thought they might just "cancel out," but that wouldn't be enough because the sun needs rebuilding, not just an end to its consumption.) Best, Jim ****************************************** "What fades in time Costello/ will hurt much more" Bacharach, "My Thief"

Hello! Jim said... (snip) "Scylla and Arioch? Oh who cares. Let's face it - they just don't have the Q Rating the other two do. It was a bad career move on Arioch's part to leave Moorcock - he was a star there." That's pretty funny. I suppose we could also say that Scylla should have stuck with the Odyssey! I like the north/west/east/south hypothesis that's up in the air, by the way.... (snip) "On the theory that black holes are drains into other universes and white holes are drains from other universes, one could imagine some physical interaction whereby the white fountain adds more stuff than the black hole takes away. (At first I thought they might just "cancel out," but that wouldn't be enough because the sun needs rebuilding, not just an end to its consumption.)" This is how I've always pictured it, too. However, this does raise the question--if the White Fountain adds more than the black hole can take, then won't that build up, causing the New Sun to grow constantly brighter at a steadily increasing rate? That doesn't sound very hospitable! Hmmm...any thoughts on how this is supposed to work? (Physics isn't my strong point, I fear.) One final conjecture: when reading TBOTNS, I always received the impression that the giants/entities/whatever were immeasurably ancient (of course, all of Urth is immeasurably ancient). They had an "eternal" feel to them. Certainly, there is never any mention in the Book of how these entities arrived. Granted, at the moment, I have no textual evidence to give you, but here's a speculation: what if Abaia & Co. are presumed to be already living in the sea (or on Mt. Erebus, if that is taken as Erebus' physical throne) in our own age--simply inactive (because they are young, or because they are waiting, or for some other reason). Only a hypothesis--but perhaps an interesting one. Well, that's all I have for now.

On the other hand, it doesn't make much sense to assume the white hole is an eternal solution to entropy. All the stars are gonna die eventually (unless this is a gnab gib universe). The white hole prevents the premature end of the sun. -Rostrum

Rostrum wrote: <<On the other hand, it doesn't make much sense to assume the white hole is an eternal solution to entropy. All the stars are gonna die eventually (unless this is a gnab gib universe). The white hole prevents the premature end of the sun.>> Certainly the White Fountain will not prevent the eventual fizzle or re-crunch of the universe. What disturbed me is the notion that the White Fountain may not "root out" the worm gnawing at the heart of the Old Sun. It just gives the worm more to gnaw on -- "chew all you want -- we'll make more!" From an allegorical standpoint, it takes away much of the punch of the New Sun burning away the old corruption, etc. Carlton