Subject: (urth) Cim glowing

From: Peter Cash <cash at rsn.hp.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 10:13:00 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

> From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>

> >  Here's the Cim name quote (p 199 of the 1980 Timescape
> >  pb edition of IODDAOSAOS):
> >
> >      When I was born my father wished to name me
> >      Seven Snows, which is a common name for girls
> >      amoung our people.  But I was born while he
> >      was away in his boat; and before he returned,
> >      my mother had left her bed and seen the Cim
> >      blowing from tree to tree like a soft star in
> >      the air, and completed the naming.
> 
>         I have nothing to go on except the passage itself, but I figured that cim
> is snow. Notice that the naming is "completed," which implies (possibly)
> that the mother did not completely change the father's desires.

I hate to be always the contrarian (lie: I love it)...but I think "Cim"
is an electrical phenomenon, like St. Elmo's Fire or ball lightning.
Either could fit the description of a "soft star" moving from tree to
tree. In addition there is Cim's weapon: perhaps the totemic naming
conveys an analogous power on the named one, and thus Cim's weapon is
electrical.

Sgt. Rock

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 17:36:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #7198344 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#

Sgt. Rock,

Hey, nice tie-in re: electicity and the weapon!

How'bout Cim as "firefly"?  "Glowing?" Check!  "Star-like?"
Check!  "Softer than thunder?"  Check!

Random Latin: cimex (a bug).

=mantis=

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From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 21:06:40 +0000

>Random Latin: cimex (a bug).

Ya beat me to it, Mantis. After thinking more about snow, I settled on
lightning bug/firefly, and was planning to post.... And, if "cim" is bug,
then "cim glowing" is clearly firefly. 

I'll ride with this one until somebody gives a good reason to depart from it.

Nutricious