{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3258", "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": 3258, "subject": "5HC the abos", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2002-05-13T05:21:08+00:00", "last": "2002-05-13T05:21:08+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Roy C. Lackey", "address": "rclackey at stic.net" }, "date": "2002-05-13T05:21:08+00:00", "subject": "(urth) 5HC the abos", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It seems to me that so many \"facts\" are in dispute regarding 5HC that some\nattempt should be made to present those for which there can be little or no\ndoubt, so far as that can be done within a work of fiction, a fiction made\ndeliberately vague by its author. If one \"fact\" is contradicted by another,\nor appears to be, then we are left to distinguish between or among the\nperceptions of those presenting those facts, to weigh one against the other,\napply our external knowledge of how things work, and come to reasonable\nconclusions based upon a preponderance of evidence: that, and assume that\nthe author is playing fair and that his puzzles have solutions which can be\nfound in the text. If this latter caveat is not true, then what is the\npoint, either of reading it or having written it? If the work is\nnonsensical, a literary-seeming \"Jabberwocky\", why give it a second thought?\n\nWith that in mind, here are the facts of 5HC, as I see them, with regard to\nthe \"abos\".\n\n1) The abos existed. Besides the confirmation by Wolfe in that interview\n(where Shadow child was surely a slip for abo), without abos 2/3 of the work\nis meaningless.\n\n2) The abos antedated the first French landing. The symmetry, number, and\nage of the trees in the Annese \"temple\" establish this.\n\n3) The abos' lack of, and inability to use, tools is related to their\ninability to use their thumbs as humans do. It is very difficult to imagine\nany environmental scenario in which a species, which once had an opposable\nthumb, would have that trait deselected by evolution. It just ain't gonna\nhappen, especially for a species living in what amounts to a pre-paleolithic\ncondition, where most of their waking hours are spent hunting for food and\nother necessities, just to keep alive. An opposable thumb is quite handy,\nwhether in a high-tech or low-tech society, or anywhere in between. We are\ninvited to assume that, with a bow to Dollo, the abos use their teeth to\ncompensate for the loss of function of their thumbs--assuming that they ever\nhad it.\n\n4) Victor is at least half abo. He may be all abo, in which case the problem\nof the viability of humans and abos interbreeding is eliminated. If he is\nhalf abo, then the fruit of such a union may be sterile, like mules. We are\ngiven no other examples of half-breeds. If Victor is half abo, would not the\nopposable thumb be genetically dominate?\n\n5) As to the absence of tangible proof of the abos' existence, for which\nMarsch was ostensibly searching, the text is not only vague, but\ninconsistent. Marsch is quite young to have earned a doctorate and, as\nHagsmith put it, for an anthropologist seems \"hellishly ignorant\" of his\nsubject. On the one hand, enough information got back to Earth for some fool\nto theorize that the Annese \"temple\" was a natural growth, but somehow\nMarsch seems to have escaped the quite significant knowledge that abos not\nonly don't use tools, but can't. If he had known that, why would he have\nthought that the \"absence of legitimate artifacts remains to be explained\"\nor gone in search of a sacred cave in which there might be paintings?\nWhether the knowledge of things Annese reached Earth from the early French\nor the English-speaking victors--or both--doesn't matter; what matters is\nthat it did and that Marsch remains improbably oblivious. If humans had\nencountered a species so close to human on another planet, it's hard to\nimagine that species hadn't been the focus of intense research for two\nhundred years, and that specimens didn't exist on Earth. Hell, the first\nthing the French found after splashdown was a body.\n\nWhich brings me to another point often mentioned but not discussed; the\naffair at the ford. The name of the ford, \"Running Blood\", implies that a\ngreat deal of blood was shed there. The early French colonists evidently\nfound themselves in urgent need of a means of distinguishing between humans\nand abos, and were taking no prisoners. There is no clue given to the exact\nnature of that need, but they were obviously sharp enough to have realized\nthat abos couldn't use tools, and used a shovel for their shibboleth. Such\nloss of life as the name of the ford implies should have resulted in a great\nmany abo bodies. Why wouldn't Marsch think to look there first for abo\nremains?\n\n6) The use of vines to enter (as Eastwind did) or exit the sand pit: just\ntry to pull your own weight up a steep incline with a rope, without using\nyour thumbs to grasp the rope, or to pull someone up an incline (as was done\nfor Eastwind) without thumbs. When Sandwalker rescued the five Shadow\nchildren from another pit he used his hands to pull them out, and the Shadow\nchildren used their hands to grasp his; again, pretty hard to do without\nhuman-style thumbs. In the fight with the marshmen that followed, Sandwalker\n\"was upon him almost before he hit, his thumbs merciless as stones as they\ndrove into his neck\". What, exactly, was he doing with his thumbs? Using\nthem to jab with in a life-or-death struggle? His elbows or knees would be\nmore effective. Or did he have his hands around the marshman's throat, as a\nman would, in an attempt to strangle? That takes opposable thumbs.\n\n7) It is unclear whether Victor murdered Marsch or Marsch died in an\naccident, but it is quite clear that the man who showed up at the whorehouse\nlooking for Veil was Victor impersonating Marsch. The journal entries made\nafter the handwriting worsened were made by Victor, as well as all of the\nwriting done in prison. If Victor killed Marsch, why did he do it? It's easy\nto see why, once Marsch was out of the way, Victor took his place--he had\nnothing to loose on Sainte Anne, and Marsch's identity was a ticket to a\nbetter life. To the Victor go the spoils. Some have maintained that Marsch\nkilled Victor, but all the evidence is to the contrary.\n\n8) The shapeshifting abilities of the abos seem to be limited to rather\nminor, chameleon-like changes; not really shapeshifting as, say, into the\nform of an animal, but fundamentally cosmetic. If abos could truly change\ntheir form, the French would have been wasting their time at Running Blood.\n\n9) How the Shadow children may be related to the abos and/or humans, I have\nno idea. If it were not for the fact that Victor seemed to be trying to\npoint some of them out to Marsch (who just isn't paying proper attention), I\nwould doubt their existence.\n\n-Roy" } ] } ] }