(urth) Sev's Family Tree

[Jeff Wilson]

On 1/28/2011 11:12 AM, James Wynn wrote:
> On 1/27/2011 9:29 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>>> Gerry Quinn: It seems obvious that family and/or close acquaintaince
>>> are the basis of its [alzabo]
>>> >modus operandi. It comes to the door crying to be let in in the
>>> voice of a family member, and in
>>> >Sev's conversation with what might be called 'the spirit of Becan'
>>> within it, it indicates that it
>>> >is motivated to bring his family to join him.
>>
>> Yes, I think the text reads just this way. As Thecla became a part of
>> Severian (and her desire to sit
>> on a throne became partly his) so Becan became a part of the alzabo.
>> Both beast and Becan wanted his
>> family to join him, though for different reasons. Becan-in-alzabo was
>> still intelligent and caring as
>> a man and father. He knew the family reunion would mean his family
>> would be eaten, dying a painful
>> death but, hey, so what. They'd be together. I supposed they neurally
>> thanked Becan and had a biochemical
>> group hug inside the alzabo's brain later.
>
> This is the same method used traditionally by vampires. Traditionally,
> they fed on family members. Also, hyenas were said to also use human
> voices to lure their victims.
> Also, the Becan Alzabo is an example of a soul/body merger. Becan
> Alzabo's logic is premised on the needs of the alzabo creature. Were it
> not for the Becan part, the alzabo would hunt easier prey. Were it not
> for the alzabo part, Becan would not want his family eaten in order to
> have them reunited until they fade from the animal's mind. He would want
> his children to grow up and further his human genes.

I'm beginning to see why Neil Gaiman thought it worked that way, back in 
the Wolfe Topic on the old GEnie net. His further thesis was that 
finding the author's name was the key to solving Wolfe stories, and the 
alzabo being a "gene wolf" was where it was writ in BotNS.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >