# peacock murderer clues and two random bits. *The Urth list — 4 messages, 3 voices, 28 Oct 2002* > 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. --- ### maa32 *28 Oct 2002, 14:44* I am a bit surprised that no one mentions the most obvious hint that Peacock is going to kill Olivia. We know that most of the names of the text (gold, black, "olive-ia", peacock blue, etc.) are associated with colors. When colors appear, they are associated with these characters. Read the section where Olivia and Peacock and Den are in the cave with the skull - Olivia places great importance on wrapping the remains of their dinner in blue ribbon and says that Weer will remember it later when it is important, and it will make sense. This is her transtemporal way of saying that the seal on her own casket will be enacted by the man associated with blue - Prof. Peacock. The death imagery in the whole cave scene is overwhelming, and Olivia even talks about killing Peacock as they descend, if I'm not mistaken. Throughout the text color really does invoke a particular character. Also, in the embedded tales, anything with the initials S.B. invokes the banker and reveals a bit more about his situation. Two more things - I got a letter the other day from Mr. Wolfe, and it was written on a manuscript page from In Green's Jungles. I wasn't sure if it was a mistake or not, or what stage of revision it was from. If it was textually different from the published version I was going to post it in it's entirety - alas, after finding the portion in the published book that corresponded with the pages. The only change was one adjective - in the manuscript "a boar" became "a MATURE boar" in the published version. Shoot. Finally, found a good quote in In Green's Jungles. It is in the first chapter- I don't have the text directly in front of me, but since I'm typing I might as well put it down and then repost it later. It is two paragraphs that says (in paraphrase which I will repost tonight exactly with page number) "Green was a whorl made for trees. Indeed, green was a whorl made by trees ... the only problem that the trees hadn't solved was that of the lianas." Remember that the only problem on green is that of the inhumi - and I insist that the liana are the inhumi and the trees are sentient. (However, I would argue that the trees were made for Green) I will quote more later - but I grew weary of reiterating the same thing about these trees. Have a good day. Marc Aramini --- ### Adam Stephanides *29 Oct 2002, 01:02 · follows maa32* > on 10/28/02 8:44 AM, maa32 at maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu wrote: > Read the section > where Olivia and Peacock and Den are in the cave with the skull - Olivia > places great importance on wrapping the remains of their dinner in blue ribbon > and says that Weer will remember it later when it is important, and it will > make sense. The passage actually reads: Aunt Olivia, having untied the blue thread that had held it shut in the basket, peered into a small milk-glass with a lid shaped like a setting hen. "Ah, olives," she said. "Ripe olives. I'd forgotten what I put in there. Den may realize that, Robert, but it won't mean anything to him. Not yet." (p. 57, Harper hc) So the blue thread (not ribbon) is untied, not tied; and there's nothing about Weer remembering it "when it is important." And in any case, by "it won't mean anything to him. Not yet," she seems to be referring to her forgetting about the olives (which doesn't mean anything to me either), not to the blue thread. Later she leaves the empty dish in the cave (59), but there's nothing about her wrapping it first, in blue ribbon or otherwise. In any case, if this is the "most obvious hint," I hate to think what the less obvious hints are. --Adam --- ### Roy C. Lackey *29 Oct 2002, 08:11 · follows Adam Stephanides* > Adam Stephanides wrote: > The passage actually reads: > > Aunt Olivia, having untied the blue thread that had held it shut in the > basket, peered into a small milk-glass with a lid shaped like a setting > hen. > "Ah, olives," she said. "Ripe olives. I'd forgotten what I put in there. > Den may realize that, Robert, but it won't mean anything to him. Not yet." > (p. 57, Harper hc) > > So the blue thread (not ribbon) is untied, not tied; and there's nothing > about Weer remembering it "when it is important." And in any case, by "it > won't mean anything to him. Not yet," she seems to be referring to her > forgetting about the olives (which doesn't mean anything to me either), not > to the blue thread. Later she leaves the empty dish in the cave (59), but > there's nothing about her wrapping it first, in blue ribbon or otherwise. She's referring, I believe, to Peacock's question in the preceding paragraph. Answering his question, actually, which was: "Do you think Alden here realizes that this is the oldest house he has ever been in? Probably the oldest house he will ever be in, even if he lives to be a hundred." -Roy --- ### Adam Stephanides *30 Oct 2002, 22:01 · follows Roy C. Lackey* > on 10/29/02 2:11 AM, Roy C. Lackey at rclackey at stic.net wrote: > She's referring, I believe, to Peacock's question in the preceding > paragraph. Answering his question, actually, which was: "Do you think Alden > here realizes that this is the oldest house he has ever been in? Probably > the oldest house he will ever be in, even if he lives to be a hundred." D'oh! Of course. Thanks. --Adam ---