love & the inhumi
The Urth list — 3 messages, 2 voices, 07 Feb 2002
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2935

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Andy Robertson — 07 Feb 2002, 11:40

----- Original Message -----

> > From: "Alice K. Turner" <aturner3 at nyc.rr.com>
> > and Hyacinth's ghost in the ruined palace:  part mocking, part loving.
> > What happened to them?

> Nice post, hartshorn. Which is to say that I too have thought about these
> things. How in the world could two so fundamentally different characters
> have found a way to get along? With Silk it would be the healing power of
> sex,

or love . . .

now, come to think of it the whole business of the inhumi is about "the
healing power of love", isn' it?

If people stop hating the inhumi, who get their souls from people, will stop
being god's scourge.

Unfortunately Wolfe is not offering any facile answer here.   The healing
power of sexual love does not work particularly well where the inhumi are
concerned:  Jahlee's "humanisation" and interior sexualisation and love for
Horn/Silk only leads her to try to kill Nettle.

If anything the message of the books seems to be that you *can't* love the
alien, or that it is a task that requires a god's patience.


    hartshorn

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James Jordan — 12 Feb 2002, 17:33
  follows, by subject match Andy Robertson

> At 05:40 AM 2/7/2002, you wrote:
> If people stop hating the inhumi, who get their souls from people, will stop
> being god's scourge.
> 
> Unfortunately Wolfe is not offering any facile answer here.   The healing
> power of sexual love does not work particularly well where the inhumi are
> concerned:  Jahlee's "humanisation" and interior sexualisation and love for
> Horn/Silk only leads her to try to kill Nettle.
> 
> If anything the message of the books seems to be that you *can't* love the
> alien, or that it is a task that requires a god's patience.
> 
> 
>     hartshorn

         In another post I mentioned that Wolfe sees sanctification as a 
very long and difficult process. His comment to me years ago about Severian 
was that Severian has come from a horrible background, and is gradually and 
traumatically trying to become a better person. I think we need to bear 
this theme in mind in the Short Sun presentation of human/inhumi 
relationships. Wolfe does, IMO, present what needs to happen: people to 
love inhumi as they love themselves (love your Neighbor as you love 
yourself, and inhumi are part of Neighborness). But there are going to be 
loads of setbacks along the way. These failures ought not to be taken as 
indications that the programme is wrong.
         When Jahlee dies in Nettle's arms, that is one of the most moving 
scenes I've ever read. It gives me chills just to remember it. It is a 
wonderful image of hope in spite of failure.

Nutria

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Andy Robertson — 12 Feb 2002, 20:31
  follows, by subject match James Jordan

----- Original Message -----
From: James Jordan

>        When Jahlee dies in Nettle's arms, that is one of the most moving
> scenes
> I've ever read. It gives me chills just to remember it. It is a wonderful
> image
> of hope in spite of failure.

Actually, it seems to me a powerful image of failure in spite of hope :-(

    hartshorn

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