(urth) Lives of the Great Beasts

[David Stockhoff]

Why couldn't it be a joke?

Jonathan Goodwin wrote:
> "Megatherian" is not Wolfe's coinage. It's in the OED. It is a simple
> variant of the same word used to describe the extinct sloths, used in
> the same way: "great beast."
>
> What does "megatherian" mean in the New Sun? It refers to the great
> beasts Abaia, Erebus, Scylla, Arioch, et al. (If they are the size of
> mountains, what bioengineered animal would warrant "mega-"?) There are
> sorcerers on Urth, and perhaps their power does come from the
> megatherians. I doubt that the mentioned book is a parallel to
> Godwin's Lives of the Necromancers, however. To think it so would
> require making a specific inference from Crowley's silliness, and I
> see no reason to do that.
>
> On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 9:29 PM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote:
>   
>> On 7/2/2010 5:05 PM, Jonathan Goodwin wrote:
>>     
>>> As I understand it, Crowley added "mega" to the word "therion," which
>>> does not appear with that modifier in the Apocalypse, to describe
>>> himself. I find it dubious that Wolfe would rely on a term used by an
>>> idiosyncratic megalomaniac, when the more literal description fits the
>>> text so much more clearly.
>>>       
>> I'm not sure what you mean. "Megatherians" is in the text. If "megatherion"
>> is somehow tainted, why wouldn't he use somesthing less similar? It equally
>> skims close "Megatherium", the name for the prehistoric giant sloth of the
>> region, and whose latter-day counterpart appears in the Well of Orchids.
>> Sloth biographies?
>>
>> Or it could refer these, equally colorful fellows:
>>
>> http://www.150.si.edu/chap3/club.htm
>>
>> --
>> Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
>> IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
>> < http://ieeetamut.org >
>> _______________________________________________
>>     
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