{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2973", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 2973, "subject": "Biblical connections", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2002-02-20T18:22:47+00:00", "last": "2002-02-22T11:46:50+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "allanhlloyd", "address": "allanhlloyd at netscapeonline.co.uk" }, "date": "2002-02-20T18:22:47+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Biblical connections", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I will leave you guys to debate the deeper relevance of the Gospels to\nthe Short Sun books, but the talk of the Whorl doing a round trip and\ncoming back to Urth (Blue =Earth, Green = Moon etc.) brought an lovely\nimage of the Whorl as Noah's Ark, cruising around waiting for the waters\nto subside. Lots of animals and humans stored in the hold, two by two is\nhardly viable genetically! And Oreb as the Raven.\n\nOn the subject of Horn/Silk not eating, I wonder if this is connected\nto Horn's experience in the Pit. After the Pit, he found that his\neyesight had improved so that he saw the world in a completely different\nway, he suddenly became a crack shot, and was able to find his way\nthrough impenetrable jungle. I used to think that this was because\nKrait had taken his blood while he was unconscious and that the method\nused to bring him back to life was for Horn to receive a transfusion\nback from Krait. This made them \"blood brothers\" and meant that they\nshared physical characteristics. (It would also explain why Krait\nlooked so much like Sinew who was bitten by an inhumi when a baby.) This\nmay help to explain why the experience was so shattering to Horn, and\nwhy he said that after this \"the best part of my life was over\". Maybe\nas the books go on he is continuing to share blood with Krait and Jahlee\nand this affects his appetite for normal food.\n\n(This is all from memory, as I haven't read the books for a while. I\nintend to start a reread before long to see if I like them any better\nafter a break from all things Wolfeian.)\n\n Allan" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Timothy Reilly", "address": "treilly at ozemail.com.au" }, "date": "2002-02-21T05:54:58+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Biblical connections", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Allan wrote:\nOn the subject of Horn/Silk not eating, I wonder if this is connected\nto Horn's experience in the Pit. After the Pit, he found that his\neyesight had improved so that he saw the world in a completely different\nway, he suddenly became a crack shot, and was able to find his way\nthrough impenetrable jungle. I used to think that this was because\nKrait had taken his blood while he was unconscious and that the method\nused to bring him back to life was for Horn to receive a transfusion\nback from Krait. This made them \"blood brothers\" and meant that they\nshared physical characteristics. (It would also explain why Krait\nlooked so much like Sinew who was bitten by an inhumi when a baby.) This\nmay help to explain why the experience was so shattering to Horn, and\nwhy he said that after this \"the best part of my life was over\". Maybe\nas the books go on he is continuing to share blood with Krait and Jahlee\nand this affects his appetite for normal food." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Nice idea Alan. What happens in the pit in OBW seems central to\nunderstanding the remainder of the trilogy, and this is the most sensible\nsounding speculation I can recall. Re \"the best part of my life was over\",\nI regret that the best part of TBSS is then over too.\n\nI've been reading The Rings of Saturn by the late W G Sebald recently.\nDespite the title, it's certainly not SF, but I can recommend it to those\n(like me) who admire the narrative voice of TBNS. It's calm, contemplative\nand endlessly digressive - and Baldanders gets an early mention:\n\n\"Recently I realized that the imaginary beings listed alphabetically in\n[Borges' Libros de los seres imaginarios] include the creature Baldanders,\nwhom Simplicius Simplicissimus encounters in the sixth book of\nGrimmelshausen's narrative. There, Baldanders is first seen as a stone\nsculpture lying in a forest, resembling a Germanic hero of old and wearing a\nRoman soldier's tunic with a big Swabian bib. Baldanders claims to have\ncome from Paradise, to have always been in Simplicius's company,\nunbenknownst to him, and to be unable to quit his side until Simplicius\nshall have reverted to the clay he is made of. Then, before the very eyes\nof Simplicius, Baldanders changes into a scribe who writes these lines\n[illustration omitted], and then into a mighty oak, a sow, a sausage, a\npiece of excrement, a field of clover, a white flower, a mulberry tree, and\na silk carpet.\"\n\nFinally Wolfe in his interview complains that nobody mentions one of his\nfavourite short stories, The Death of the Island Doctor. Well I've always\nloved it, though I confess I've never mentioned this before...\n\nTim" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Steve Strickland", "address": "sstrickland at satx.rr.com" }, "date": "2002-02-22T11:46:50+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) Biblical connections", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Actually, Horn began finding his way through impenetrable jungle after his\nmeeting with the Neighbors, if I remember correctly, which was before the\nPit.\n\n----- Original Message -----" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: \"Timothy Reilly\" \nTo: \nSent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 11:54 PM\nSubject: Re: (urth) Biblical connections\nAllan wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "On the subject of Horn/Silk not eating, I wonder if this is connected\nto Horn's experience in the Pit. After the Pit, he found that his\neyesight had improved so that he saw the world in a completely different\nway, he suddenly became a crack shot, and was able to find his way\nthrough impenetrable jungle. I used to think that this was because\nKrait had taken his blood while he was unconscious and that the method\nused to bring him back to life was for Horn to receive a transfusion\nback from Krait." } ] } ] }