(urth) What's So Great About Ushas?

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

On Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:24:56 +1000 Dave Tallman 
<davetallman at msn.com> wrote:
>Andrew wrote:
>> My reading: because it would lead in the future to the 
>conclusion 
>> actually reached at the end of UOTNS. 
>>
>> That is: Sev + a small band of Urth humans (but not too small: I 

>
>> suppose the mind-wiped sailors are there to make the gene pool 
>> viable while at the same time small enough for Sev's genes to 
>> quickly percolate through the whole race) + a viable planet.
>>
>> For this, they need an Urth humanity too weak to avoid genocide; 

>
>> and the mythos of the New Sun to produce a Sev willing to 
>> participate in the genocide; whatever line of descent in the 
>> interim required to produce a Sev with Sev's 
>genes/powers/whatever; 
>> and a revitalised sun. They use admirable economy of action in 
>> achieving all of these rnd-points.
>>   
>I have two issues with this idea; one is practical and the other 
>artistic. On the practical side, the Sev who brings about the New 
>Sun is 
>an aquastor. The aquastor Malrubius acts as a mouthpiece for the 
>Hierogrammates. If all they wanted was a puppet with the right 
>genetics, 
>then permitting Sev his adventures was a waste of time.
>
>The artistic issue is that a heroic story has been converted into 
>a 
>horror story. In this reading, evil triumphs. Had Sev failed to 
>bring 
>the New Sun (if that were even permitted by these all-powerful 
>puppeteers) then Urth humans would have been just as much at their 

>mercy 
>after the Ragnorak evacuation. The whole epic becomes pointless,

If the Hierogrammates were all-powerful puppeteers then it would 
indeed be boring and pointless, and I have never sugegsted they 
were, for this reason, and also because everything in the text 
suggests that they are not. 

They don't need just his genes. They need him to do certain things 
of his own volition, perhaps because only he can do them, perhaps 
because the "Epitome's" volition is crucial. And it seems very 
clear to me that in UOTNS things are balanced on the knife-edge for 
the Hiero-dudes. If once Sev can catch his breath and start 
actually *thinking* and *questioning*, their plans may come 
unstuck. 

So they bewilder him on Yesod; use sex to stop his questioning 
there, and once again to stop him thinking when he's back on the 
Ship; race him through his sham "mission" in Typhon's time; and 
bring him back to his own era when it's too late to stop anything. 
>From fake trial to destruction of Urth, Sev's subjective time 
elapsed appears to be about a week. He is not a quick thinker.

The artistic objection is the most powerful, but in the end I just 
have to go with what I can make sense of. This is a dark story; 
genocide, and future of pain and suffering throughout the galaxies. 
But I think it all gets turned around in SS and LS, as I've argued 
elsewhere.

The point about Urth people still being vulnerable to the 
Hierogrammates in a different future is fairly irrelevant. If the 
Hieros wanted just to kill lots of humans they could do so whenever 
they chose. The genocide on Urth was for a purpose (ie to cut down 
the gene pool, or so I believe) - not just for random nastiness. 

In a different future, Urth is never going to be the center of some 
new gimcrack interstellar empire. It's just going to die, slowly, 
or so we must assume. But all the other human worlds continue on, 
and Apheta makes it clear that they are too numerous and scattered 
for the not-all-powerful Hierogrammates to do much about them. 

What would a different future achieve? First, no sudden death to 
the people of Urth. Second, no new race of Hieros spreading 
millenia of pain and suffering spreading through the galaxies. 

(Clearly, the Urth itself must be important for the Hiero-dudes' 
plans. Somebody says somewhere in BOTNS that different continents 
have diffrent templates which impsoe themselves on their 
populations; and I suppose in this story that the same goes for 
planets. Before long Urth will be unihabitable. Probably Sev 
represents the Hiero-dudes' last shot at getting the new Hieros 
started.)

And if my speculation about the Hiero-dudes' agenda is correct, a 
different future means that their plans to storm heaven are foiled, 
at least for now. But presumably those plans are doomed anyway.