Neal Stephenson Quote
Aister interprets the myth as 'an exposition of a logical problem: Supposingthat originally there was nothing but one creator, how could ordinary binarysexual relations come into being?'Ah, there's that word 'binary' again.You may remember an unexplored fork earlier in our conversation that would havebrought us to this same place by another route. This myth can be compared tothe Sumerian creation myth, in which heaven and earth are united to begin with,but the world is not really created until the two are separated. Most Creationmyths begin with a 'paradoxical unity of everything, evaluated either as chaosor as Paradise,' and the world as we know it does not really come into beinguntil this is changed. I should point out here that Enki's original name wasEn-Kur, Lord of Kur. Kur was a primeval ocean -- Chaos -- that Enki conquered.Every hacker can identify with that.But Asherahas similar connotations. Her name in Ugaritic, 'atiratu yammi'means 'she who treads on (the) sea (dragon)’.Okay, so both Enki and Asherah were figures who had in some sense defeatedchaos. And your point is that this defeat of chaos, the separation of thestatic, unified world into a binary system, is identified with creation.Correct.
Aister interprets the myth as 'an exposition of a logical problem: Supposingthat originally there was nothing but one creator, how could ordinary binarysexual relations come into being?'Ah, there's that word 'binary' again.You may remember an unexplored fork earlier in our conversation that would havebrought us to this same place by another route. This myth can be compared tothe Sumerian creation myth, in which heaven and earth are united to begin with,but the world is not really created until the two are separated. Most Creationmyths begin with a 'paradoxical unity of everything, evaluated either as chaosor as Paradise,' and the world as we know it does not really come into beinguntil this is changed. I should point out here that Enki's original name wasEn-Kur, Lord of Kur. Kur was a primeval ocean -- Chaos -- that Enki conquered.Every hacker can identify with that.But Asherahas similar connotations. Her name in Ugaritic, 'atiratu yammi'means 'she who treads on (the) sea (dragon)’.Okay, so both Enki and Asherah were figures who had in some sense defeatedchaos. And your point is that this defeat of chaos, the separation of thestatic, unified world into a binary system, is identified with creation.Correct.
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