(urth) The Morality of the Hierogrammates

[Paul B]

Right you are, I'd forgotten about that bit.  That said, Baldanders seems to
mean that the heat generated by a stronger gravitational pull would heat
Urth and melt the water.  Baldanders isn't likely to lie, but again it's
curious where that much water comes from.

He doesn't mention tectonic shifts, and I admit to not being physicist
enough to challenge the idea, but it seems like gravitationally-motivated
shifts would be even more catastrophic than what is described.
(Incidentally, a change in centripetal force in newtonian mechanics would
drastically change the equilibrium orbits of the whole solar system)

Furthermore, it's of possible interest that his scientific expertise has
been supplied by the aliens, to a large extent.

On 7/23/07, Bruce Hayles <brucehayles at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure what the confusion is about. Baldanders says that the
> flood is caused by  gravitational forces from the New Sun in Urth of
> the New Sun XLII.
>
> On 7/23/07, Paul B <pb.stuff at gmail.com> wrote:
> > That's fine, but it's about as difficult to explain sudden global
> tectonic
> > shifts than it is to explain a flood.
> >
> >
> > On 7/23/07, brunians at brunians.org <brunians at brunians.org> wrote:
> > > > I recently read the archive discussion about the theodicean aspect
> of
> > > > BotNS,
> > > > and the morality and necessity of the flood that accompanies the new
> > sun.
> > > > One thing struck me, and if it's old hat, then I've not been
> thorough
> > > > enough
> > > > in reading the archives.  That thing is the precipitous pace of the
> > flood,
> > > > which apparently takes Urth in a matter of days and surprises those
> at
> > the
> > > > House Absolute by the time that Severian shows up.  A flood of
> Biblical
> > > > proportions, if you will.
> > > >
> > > > Now, one thing that has been jokingly asked of that one, can be
> > seriously
> > > > asked of this: where does the water come from?
> > >
> > > The continents are drowned, new continents rise where the oceans are,
> the
> > > oceans move around. No new water required.
> > >
> > >
> > > .
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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