Subject: (urth) Innocents Aboard

From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 01:43:49 +0000

Working my way through this collection, and checked the Wiki for clues
pertaining to "The Friendship Light". If one of you threw in the quip about
the Star Child from 2001, thanks for the laugh!

As for the story itself, is there a type of demon / vampire from any
mythology that spurns the heads of its victims? This behavior reminds me of
certain cats I've known, who will leave snake and mouse heads untouched and
eat a good portion of the rest.
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From: Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 08:20:06 +0000

One of my favourite stories by Wolfe:  I've often wondered about the
creature.  As I recall, some character says, laughingly, that its victim
probably *thought* it was a devil or demon - implying that this wasn't at
all the case.

I wondered if it was some sort of avenging angel (think of the monstrous
seraphim and cherubim of Hebrew scripture - Wolfe references the latter to
great effect in another story in this collection, as he also does in
'Quadrifons' from Long and Short Suns).

I also wondered if it was a gryphon or sphinx or some other being from
mythology.

(I've also never been able to figure out what in the world is a 'friendship
light' is.)

-DOJP

On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 2:43 AM, Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
wrote:

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-- 
Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
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From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:35:37 +0000

Here it is:

"You took him, as you promised, whole and entire.  I have no grounds for
complaint upon that score, or indeed upon any.  And I feel certain he met
his well-deserved death firmly convinced that he was in the grip of demons,
or some such thing, which I find enormously satisfying."

We get very little (even by Wolfe standards) description of the
maybe-demons.  All we really know is they have wings and green eyes.  I'm
wondering if they aren't some kind of alien ... Ty seems to think it is
somewhat funny that his brother-in-law will have thought he was being
attacked by demons.  Can we take this to mean there is no supernatural
element at all?  Ty clearly has a good idea of what they are, and he
doesn't think they're demons.

I wonder also about the Coleman lantern at the end, strung up in a tree to
flicker when "signal frequencies" change.  It's not uncommon in
American-myth for alien spaceships (or the beings themselves) to mess with
electronics and gadgets of all kinds, when close.

Alien abduction classically is "whole and entire" as well, but this doesn't
mesh with the disemboweling of Nicollete or the headless cat, unless these
are "mutilated cow" events.

On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 4:20 AM, Daniel Otto Jack Petersen <
danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:

> (I've also never been able to figure out what in the world is a
> 'friendship light' is.)
>
> -DOJP
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 2:43 AM, Antonin Scriabin <
> kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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From: Tony Ellis <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 14:46:57 +0000

Antonin Scriabin wrote (re: The Friendship Light)

> mythology that spurns the heads of its victims?

The 'friends' are HP Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth, who steal human
brains. You can read about them in The Whisperer in Darkness.

The fact that they're attracted by a lamp is a Wolfean pun on the fact
that the Fungi are described as moth-like.