(urth) Seawrack and the Mother

[Sergei SOLOVIEV]

It's interesting that I mostly agree with this mail.

By the way, the creature you mention reminded me about
certain strange parallelism of Blue/Green world and the
world of Urth and its green moon (there were long discussions
of that, but I want to mention only one point here).

The creature seems to be related in some "metaphysical" way to Baldanders
after he became aquatic.

Sergei

Lee Berman wrote:
>   
>> Mark Millman: alternate hypothesis- The pirate ship is just that:  
>> a pirate ship....Horn's shot kills or knocks overboard the girl pirate, 
>> who (or whose body) is then used by the Mother to create Seawrack, her 
>> agent.
>>     
>
> At first glance I can see why this hypothesis seems more parsimonious.
> But I don't think it accounts for much that is in the text. Seawrack
> does seem to feed Horn two storylines. One jibes with Mark's hypothesis-
> that she was born a regular human and adopted by the Mother. But so much
> else of what Seawrack says suggests she has spent most/all of her life with 
> the Mother, eating fish and drowned sailors, being cloistered and comforted
> within her massive body.
>
> If Mark's hypothesis was correct, all that backstory, maternal connection
> and sense of child development would have had to take place in the space of 
> the few days between when the pirate girl was shot and Seawrack joins Horn. 
> Not to mention that in the same short time, the Mother would have had to revamp
> the girl's body to possess working gills and imbue her with mystic singing
> abilities and superhuman swimming abilities. If she could do all that in a
> few days, why not also grow back Seawrack's arm?
>
> Horn pointedly notes how foreign and exotic Seawrack's face looks. I don't
> think she is from Whorl stock. Moreover, Horn speculates on how the Vanished
> People must have worshipped this Mother/sea goddess. He says:
>
>   
>> She shaped herself, I believe, a woman of the Vanished People so that they
>> would love her. We are here now, and so she shaped for me a woman of my own 
>> race....
>>     
>
> I think all the above supports the hypothesis that the Mother grew Seawrack
> from the start rather than quickly reforming an existing human body. I feel 
> Mark's hypothesis serves mostly to undercut the idea that the pirate ship might 
> be akin to the Naviscaput. But why would you want to do that?
>
> The Naviscaput is associated with Abaia who seems to bud off undines who, like
> Seawrack, have siren and mermaid connotations. Why would you want to make an
> effort to ignore such a connection as that? I don't find the reality of the 
> pirate ship important enough to preserve in the face of that evidence.
>
> As far as Seawrack's real name, I think it is a great mystery. My best guess is
> that it is English/Latin wordplay on the part of Wolfe. I think the similar-
> sounding name Wolfe is hinting at is "Siren" or "Sirenia" (the genus name of
> manatees). It makes sense that Vironese Horn would find either incomprehensible 
> and give her a seaweed plant name which sounds similar.
>
>   
>> Marc Aramini: Does the four armed thing come up AFTER the pirate girl falls in the 
>> water? 
>>     
>
> Fairly long after. Horn's hypothesis is that the multi-limbed crusted thing is a
> Neighbor something along the lines of Midas. A god gave him a curse disguised
> as a blessing in the form of eternal life. Horn invites us to come up with a
> better theory. I have one (not sure if it is better)- perhaps this is the 
> "woman of the Vanished People" that the Mother previously formed to seduce
> them.
>
> The creature is far stronger than Babbie but seems afraid of the storm.  It
> apparently responds to Seawrack's instructions to leave them alone. Because 
> she is the Mother's agent? Not sure which hypothesis that supports. Maybe mine. 
> I dunno.
>
>   		 	   		  
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