(urth) Oldest altar
David Stockhoff
dstockhoff at verizon.net
Wed Oct 6 05:35:45 PDT 2010
Lacking no knowledge about how memory-wiping "works," I can only agree
and observe that plainly there is tension between the Typhons' desire,
on the one hand, to have their worst excesses forgotten so that they may
be worshiped wholeheartedly on the Whorl and, on the other, that their
crimes and flaws not be entirely forgotten so that they may be worshiped
fearfully on the Whorl.
In fact, this seems almost to be the function of a pantheon---that it
contain gods to be feared as well as gods to be loved, though even then
you still have gods that are to be loved and feared at the same time.
Wolfe's God contains all functions: he is to be loved, but he once wiped
out most life on Earth with a flood, just as the Increate did or allowed
on Ushas. So this tension is a real part of godhood, and the Typhons may
be equally a parody or an analysis of godhood.
As for Typhon's most horrid children, I am reminded of Saddam's sons,
who also were able to order deaths through their official positions. All
an emperor needs to do is make his 10-y-old son Guardian of the Royal
Garden Shed, and the slaughter can begin if the boy is so inclined.
These types of behavior are both a liability and an asset, depending.
Saddam also built palaces and statues and mosques and stadiums and
hospitals and so on, that he be thought of paternally and that his
peccadilloes be overshadowed by this paternal image. But Iraqi citizens
were effectively terrorized.
Finally, I hypothesize that Typhon's doctors could not biomedically
implant memories, at least not as well as they could wipe them. We know
this because the colonists were basically lectured on how to worship the
gods---there were no injections or implants or reverse uploads.
Therefore, it makes sense that wiping would be the final stage,
especially if wiping affects long-term memory more than short-term.
Knowing some memory would remain, they did the best they could to
suggest to the colonists that the gods were to be both loved and feared,
but never hated. Rather than empty their heads and then refill them,
they subjected them to propaganda, then carved out the most damaging
memories: the details of Typhon's rule and day-to-day life on Urth.
Had the Typhons been planning to take ship on the Whorl, they would have
been able to continue their behavior as before. As "gods" with no
physical presence, it was wise to tone down this behavior, since they
could only rule through subordinates and were unable to personally
brutalize anyone. Total memory wipe was unnecessary and
undesirable---muddling memories or making them fuzzy or confused was
sufficient for this purpose.
On 10/6/2010 6:43 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net>
>
>> "When the first people came, Auk, they were shown how we desired to be
>> worshipped. Soon, they were made to forget. They did, but because
>> they had
>> seen what they had seen, a part of them remembered, and when they
>> found our
>> altars on the inner surface, they sacrificed as we had taught them.
>> First of
>> all, here."
>
> I think your post is excellent. The foregoing paragraph still seems
> rather mysterious, though, as it seems to hint at events during a
> period about which we know little or nothing - i.e. a time between
> when people first came to the Whorl, and when they began living on the
> inner surface, in cities such as Viron. Perhaps they lived in the
> tunnels while the main interior of the Whorl was excavated and
> terraformed. Their tasks would have included hauling out thousands of
> cubic kilometres of asteroid rock (makes me think of ancient Egyptians
> constructing the Pyramids). Mainframe probably did not yet exist. Did
> Typhon (and/or his family) institute a special form of worship during
> this period?
>
> - Gerry Quinn
>
>
>
>
>
>
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