Subject: (urth) Eoliths (II); alga vs Aubrey Veil

From: Robert Borski <rborski at coredcs.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 23:20:07 +0000

To Tony Ellis:

I found out some more information about eoliths and it is possible they
have the sharper, fresher edge Marsch describes. According to the
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ARCHAEOLOGY (ed. by Glyn Daniel; Thomas Y. Crowell), sharp
edges are perfectly consistent with the nature of eoliths, where the
primary force involved in their production is thermal fracturing via frost.
They don't become eroded unless the shattered rock winds up in running
water or covered with soil. And many 20th century archeologists were
originally convinced enough by their appearance to vet them as authentic:
i.e., genuine artifacts.

Also remember the conditions under which Victor is searching for
eoliths--not by daylight, but the light of sisterworld. In other words the
pieces would have to be rather large and on the surface for him to see.
I submit that Victor and Roy make an annual pilgrimage into the back of
beyond to replenish their "artifact" stores, probably right after the
spring thaw.

Re: the Gondwanaland vs. Convergence debate. Actually Wolfe utilizes both
and may want us to make our own choices the same way he did when he had Dr.
Crane posit organic causes for Silk's mystical visions. Something for
everybody, right? My primary opposition to the nihil alienum thesis is that
it's been used to discredit my Roy Trenchard, Alien Homeboy assertions.
That's all. 

alga subsequently wrote about the four-armed slave:

>We don't know that those limbs are transplanted; they're just as likely a
mutation. It happens, >especially with the kind of help Maitre provides.

Actually there's no evidence at all that this is a mutation (and whatever
do you mean by "especially with the kind of help Maitre provides"? Almost
all mutagenic changes--from macroscale to point--are caused by radiation,
and I see no evidence of this in Maitre's laboratory. Moreover, directed
mutation--i.e., specifically inducing certain changes that would involve
this extensive of a change thoracically--may never be possible.) What also
are we to make of Number Five's remark (remember, he's a clonemaster in
training): "I told her I supposed they had transplanted the extra pair
after suppressing his body's natural resistance to the implanted foreign
tissue, and that the operation had probably replaced some of his ribs with
the donor's shoulder structure. 'I've been teaching myself to do the same
thing with mice.'"(p. 56) Perhaps this is boyish swag, you might argue; but
I see no previous examples of this. In fact, Number Five seems like one of
the few honest people in 5H and I can cite no other examples made by him of
outright braggadocio.

Re the attendance of Jeannine at the play, you wrote:

>Yes, Wolfe wants the sideshow of her futuristic prosthetic device, but I
>thought her presence indicated that she has begun to feel like family to
the
>boys--Maitre would never attend an event like this, but Jeannine has
unbent
>to them. She loves them. I like this; I don't think it's odd at all, plot
or
>no plot, but simply part of a kind of richness of writing that allows a
>maiden aunt to love and be loved.

I happen to agree with you here, but I also feel that every time one of the
sisterworlds rises and casts its light down on the other, it's meant to
signify a link of some sort from world to world. Ask me for examples, I'll
be glad to provide further. You also apparently fail to see a link between
the crippled daughter played by Phaedria and the wheelchair-bound Jeannine
in the audience--again, I don't see this as a coincidence. Nor do I later
when David is stabbed not in the arm or the chest, but the leg. He also has
an avaricious side as well, the same as Phaedria and Jeannine. Surely not
all three are simply stock French thriftaholics?

Re your dismissal of my Clute clue, the "'girls,' as you like them."

I agree. Editors can be and are occasionally sloppy. I still hold to my
original difficulty with this scene, however. ("Psst," says one hooker.
"That Levi-Strauss guy they're talking about? He's the guy who invented
bluejeans, right?")

Moreover, the eidolic Shadow Children scene along with its linked titaness
walking through walls hologram scene is adumbrated in the very last
paragraph of VRT's junglebook diary. All the dreams in 5H, I maintain, are
prefigurative (as indeed most dreams, pre-Freud and modern biology, were
accorded); witness how Victor describes what he dreams as "Children,
twisted Shadow children that are neither children nor men, and a tall girl
with long, straight hair that hung almost in my face when she bent over
me." (p. 240) I maintain this is yet another unifying link with the
eidola-and-hologram tandem I cite.

Re: the using of Robert my earthy given name, as opposed to something of
solar coinage: I'll make you a deal, alga. Whether it's to skewer me, or
cite my more gaseous nature, it's nice to see you finally contributing some
of your extended thoughts to the list. So here's my challenge: if you can
critique what I feel is the strongest piece of evidence in my
Jeannine-as-abo theory, and not just casually dismiss it, I will choose an
alternate long sun type name. Deal?

Here's what I feel is the strongest point in my argument--my contention
that Jeannine is the baby in the picture of the photo, which would make her
140 years old.

>Notice how when he sees the picture Number Five assumes the child is a
male, but has difficulty >seeing the face because it's nearly smothered by
white wool blankets. 
>Recall as well Number Five's description of Aunt Jeannine as the Black
Queen 
>in chess: "a chess queen neither sinister nor beneficent, and Black only
as distinguished from
>some White Queen I would never encounter." The White Queen Number Five
never encounters, I >submit, is the real Jeannine--clearly linked by color
with the white wool blanket that smother's the baby's face in the picture.

I simply do not believe Gene Wolfe would use "white" here except to
establish association, the same kind of matching he does for "obscured
face" and "Queen I would never encounter." 

Disagree here and I'm afraid we may never reach accord on anything because
clearly we are using different interpretive primers--not that that's a bad
thing. Diversity, after all, is the essence of life, both intellectually
and phenomenologically.

Looking forward to your response, alga. And feel free to spank me any time
you feel it's necessary. I appreciate the attention.<g>

Robert (who's busy looking over his medical tomes for a suitable bioname)  

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/