(urth) the prime calcula/ his citadel and other quotes

[Gerry Quinn]

From: "Marc Aramini" <marcaramini at yahoo.com>


> Looking for quotes about cosmology in Long Sun last night, saw
> some stuff that I thought was interesting.
>
> In Epiphany of the Long Sun, Echidna possesses Maytera, a chem,
> confuses Villus a young boy, for Auk, and says, when confronted
>  about possessing chems:
> "They are easier what mean these numbers? Why should we let you?
>  My husband ...."
> "Did Pas possess someone who died?"
> Her head swiveled toward the Sacred Window. "the prime calcula ...
> His citadel." (Epiphany p 87 (calde chapter 3)"
>
> Her disjointed response is confusing to some degree. Is she referring t
> to the numbers inside Maytera's head, or the previous set of mysterious
> numbers on the seal of Pas underground after which Silk found Mamelta?
> Does those numbers signify Pas' "citadel" is the sealed off section where
>  those sleepers, including Mamelta, were? Is the seal of Pas the prime 
> cacula
> or just the images in the window? When she awakes Mamelta's first words
> are We will be lovers, or something to that affect.

The numbers inside Maytera Marble's head, I think.

"Calcula" does not seem to be a word.  I think it refers to "the prime 
calculator", i.e. the central processing unit of Mainframe.

Those are mot Mamelta's words, but Mucor's.  (She is subsequently exorcised 
by Silk.)


> Also, Mucor says of Mamelta when she possesses her "I know her.
> She likes me." Later, Silk says '"It took me a while to identify the
> sensation," he confided to Mamelta,"but I placed it eventually.
> It was the feeling I'd had as a small boy when my mother had
> been holding me and put me down." He paused, musing.'
>  ( Litany, p 469) Once again he gets the feeling of being held
> by mother near Mamelta.

What's the implication?  Silk has never travelled in what I imagine to be an 
automated transit system, like a lift but in 3D,


> Also, when he asks her name, Silk doesn't believe her: "Mamelta."
>  He looked at her curiously. "is that your name?' It was one that
>  he had never heard. "I think so. I can't ...." "remember?" he
>  suggested gently'."  mamelta's memory is a bit unreliable, as
> Rigoglio/Roger says the cargo underwent memory alterations as well.

And?
  The simplest explanation is that this is just straight reportage.  Silk 
has never met a woman called Mamelta, because there is no plant called 
Mamelta.


> Is that sealed section with weird numbers the prime calcula on Pas'
> Whorl-ly citadel?  Also, later someone in conversation with Kypris
>  says, well, Pas would not kill you and she just kind of pauses
>  noncomitally and changes the subject, as if he might abandon her.

I'm not familiar with this - can you be more specific?  I recall Kypris 
saying that Pas kills... or nothing.


> Also, later on the gondola thinking about killing himself Silk thinks
>  how one of his father's was Chenille's, and his
> explanation to Horn indicates that they are step-siblings in a way,
> since he resembles her not at all. He brings up Mamelta and what
>  she showed him underground ( p 662 Epiphany)
> and also says that something he experienced in underground leads
>  him to believe he knows how he came to be.

But the context he brings her up in is something like "Mamelta showed me the 
landers"  He doesn't seem to be saying anything in particular about her.


> Also, something creepy in the interaction between Villus and Echidna,
> where she confuses him for Auk and then later Villus shows concern for
> his mother at the very end of Exodus from the Long Sun.
>
> Just some general observations that reinforced my feelings that the
>  blue-eyes and dark hair of Mamelta are a bit more than a coincidence.

What colours might they have been that would not be significant, and what do 
these colours say?

- Gerry Quinn