Nutria rejoinds:
[Crush's interpretation of Quetzal's allegory] makes sense, but I don't think its the only way to read it. You're right I think that serpents are all over these books, and deliberately so. But surely Scylla is a serpent also? The title of the chapter is "The Slaves of Scylla." Is that what Quetzal is? In that case, going with your allegory, it was Scylla who helped or had Typhon build the whorl. It is Scylla's tree. In the chapter, Quetzal's own tree is of recent planting.
I'm thinking that the notion that that the inhumi are slaves of Scylla may open some new avenues of investigation....
Try this: Scylla wanted the Whorl to deposit its people on Blue, where she ruled. Quetzal has his own plan, to get them to his own tree: Green. On Blue, inhumi are slaves of Scylla, like everyone else. A return to Green, to Quetzal's tree, is "the highroad to freedom." Freedom from what? From being a slave of Scylla?
I'm just playing with possibilities here.
Crush responds:
It's all quite moot with Charles' recent post, but still nicely done. Still, your suggestion has two problems:
(1) Remora is one of the "slaves of Scylla" in this chapter and he's very un-inhumi-like.
(2) Scylla is not a serpent in mythology, etymology, association, nor on the Whorl. Echidna is the serpentine goddess.
-- Crush