Subject: (whorl) Oddz, Endz

From: Robert Borski <rborski at charter.net>
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 23:39:44 +0000

First things first, a reader alert: our own mantis reviews IN GREEN'S
JUNGLES in the latest issue of THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION
(Sept., #145). As befits the only man I know who's crazy enough to attempt
to write a capsule history of THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN in about as many
sentences as it has chapters, the review is very succinct.

Secondly, I'd like to respond to the following quote from Endymion:

<OBW p.269 The neighbor says that The Mother is one of the goddesses names.
Is the neighbor referring to Scylla as another name?>

Here's the actual text, however:

*****

Lamely, I finished. "Seawrack calls her the Mother. I mean the girl--the
young lady that I call Seawrack. I mean, she used to.

The Neighbor to my left said, "That is one of her names."

*****

I believe a valid alternate interpretation here is that the Neighbor is not
talking about the Mother, but "the young lady that I call Seawrack." That
is, he's validating Horn's approximate pronunciation of her real name --
whatever that is. (I still have no clue, but I'll figure it out.)

Earlier, however, that rumpled fellow asked this:

<When Marble sends Horn down to the boat for water in OBW, he's surprised to
find fish waiting upon a rock; then even more surprised when one escapes
only to return, leaping out of the water onto the stone.  Horn hints that he
has some idea of what's going on, but not once does he mention what I
thought at first was the obvious explanation; namely, that Mucor has taken
over the fish and compelled them to jump from water to stone.  But then I
realized Mucor is journeying to the Whorl in search of Silk at the time, so
she can't be responsible>

I speculated shortly after OBW came out that Seawrack is providing the fish,
and lately that both she and Mucor are special talents of the Silk ilk.
Check the archives for further details.

And lastly I have a question for either mantis or Wombat: if
micrometeorites, which have very little mass or surface area, burn out
rather brightly when they hit earth's atmosphere, why wouldn't the inhumi?
We do know they can squeeze through under doorcracks, I seem to remember,
but this seems somewhat at a remove from mantis' gaseous phase change. (And
I'm still not buying the escape velocity end-arounds you guys are positing.)

Also for mantis: where does the Whorl orbit in your opinion? Around Blue?
Green? Or some Lagrange point between (or outside?) the binary planet
system?

Robert Borski

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