(urth) Seawrack and the Mother

[Lee Berman]

>David Stockhoff: Parent-offspring incest would then follow. It's conceivable, but sounds 
>deliberately perverse, like something Lovecraftian or Milton's Satan.

In nature, the more common scheme is for a parthenogenetic mother to produce male and female
offspring (usually in times of environmental disturbance) and it is the siblings which mate.
I think that is a function of lifespan though. If the mother remained alive long enough I'm
sure there wouldn't be any moral barriers to mother-son incest.

Anyway there is Abaia and his undine "daughter-brides" to consider in this discussion. Makes 
me wonder what the relationship is between Apheta and Tzadkiel. She claims to be "larva" which
suggests an insect nature, while Tzadkiel very specifically compares him/herself to sponges.
Perhaps a general invertebrate kinship is being suggested. Certainly giant beings like Abaia
and Tzadkiel (and Zeus?) who are said to be as large as mountains and islands, don't have an 
internal skeleton in their natural state.

Perhaps it is we humans (and our fellow vertebrates) who are perverse in the greater scheme
of things, with our extreme separation and distinction of genders. Perhaps Wolfe is recognizing
this.  I've had lifelong interest in both zoology and mythology but I'm not sure I'd ever have 
recognized the parallel between the sexual/asexual reproduction of invertebrates and the ancient 
gods without reading Wolfe.