(urth) Lives of the Great Beasts

[Jonathan Goodwin]

"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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