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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jeffrey's excellent "Valeria = Urth" post somehow
made clear to me the symbolic aspect of Sev's destruction of Typhon by killing
Piaton. Piaton surely represents the old Urth, innocent in itself but hopelessly
infected with the old evils, which it will continue to breed and suffer from,
until it is put out of its misery. Kind of a "doh" moment for not having seen it
that way previously.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But there is a fundamental question about Sev's
apocalypse which remains very unclear to me. How do Abaia and the others fit
into this? Very simply, a global inundation isn't something which is going to
cause them much grief; and indeed we see the undines leaping from the waves (or
something like that) to greet the New Sun. Abaia etc definitely have a place in
the post-apocalyptic world - just as The Mother has a place on Blue
("respect but do not worship", as Silk's final injunction to the community
in New Viron puts it). </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It my be that this was not Wolfe's intention in the
first four books, but at least by the time he wrote UOTNS, these beings occupy a
completely different space in the taxonomy of evil than creatures such as Typhon
and the governess of the proto-Torturers' Tower. They survive, Typhon and
the governess don't. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>But why? Is a race of enslaved Ascians a better
cosmic outcome than a race enslaved by Typhon? And to the extent that Abaia
wants to enslave humans, won't this be much easier to accomplish with humanity
reduced to a scattering of souls & returned to its primitive beginnings?
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And you see something of the same puzzle in the
different tretment of Typhon and Baldanders. To me it is clear enough that they
are the "alpha" and "omega" of the same type - Sev first kills the original
tyrant, and then comes down the mountain & deals with the new wannabe
tyrant. But Baldanders doesn't perish, then or in the Flood
(presumably).</FONT></DIV>
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