{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1124",
    "note": "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.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1124,
    "subject": "This little piggie went to market (muckle spoilers)",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2001-02-10T12:46:14+00:00",
    "last": "2001-02-10T15:05:15+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0170@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at charter.net"
      },
      "date": "2001-02-10T12:46:14+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) This little piggie went to market (muckle spoilers)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Much of how I view the resolution of SHORT SUN is bound up in how I\ninterpret the character of Pig, so I'm going to devote a number of posts to\nhim.\n\nWhen Hound registers Pig at Ermines, he lists Pig's home town as Nabeanntan\n(Gaelic for \"the mountains\"). Later, however, mercenary Pig disavows this,\nsaying he had to be from somewhere just for purposes of registration.\nThrough his testimony, we're also given to understand that he's been\nwandering, bereft of sight but blessed with super-accurate hearing, from the\ndistant\nMountains That Look At Mountains all the way to End Road--a journey that's\ntaken him a year. Granted, he's rather a huge fellow, but to travel\nunmolested with the handicap he has, and\nnever get lost, seems rather fortuitous. We're also told that he lost his\neyes to a knife of a fellow mercenary, but that a Flier told him he might be\nable to have his sight restored at the West Pole.\n\nI maintain that most of this is prevarication--deep cover meant to disguise\nwho Pig really is--blind Tartaros, carnified in godling form.\n\nThat godlings come in different sizes is implied by both the farmer that\nHorn means at End Road and Hound. Pig is much bigger than the average man,\nbut not nearly as big as the godling who tells Horn no more landers must\nleave the Whorl. The godlings may be only special talents like Mucor, Silk,\nor Seawrack, or they may have been designed as larger-than-life vehicles for\nthe gods of Mainframe.\n\nThe Gaelic patois he speaks associates him with Mainframe, as does his\nconnection with Nabeanntan and Flannan the Flier. He is also another maimed\ncompanion like Seawrack (whose real name is probably Screadhbhuidhe), and\nwhen he finally does arrive at the West Pole, he's given special treatment\nby the surgeons there, who aren't supposed to fix up Cargo.\n\nPig as a child was called \"Freak\" by his mother--something very much in\ncharacter with kindly, old, snaked-haired Echidna.\n\nPassilk riding him also seems apposite--Tartaros in the Proper Names section\nthat preceeds RETURN is described as \"Pas's loyal son,\" and the father-son\nduality may have appealed to Wolfe's Christian nature. (Also not sure--since\nI've yet to do a reread--but the name Tartaros may not even crop up in the\nactual text of RETURN--if so it's mentioned sparingly.)\n\nAnd who better to safeguard Silk's mortal remains on the Whorl than a\ngodling with special attributes--one easily underestimated by the former\ncaldé's various enemies?\n\nOnly thing is Tartaros has killed Silk, right?\n\nRobert Borski\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0012-0173@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Adam Stephanides",
        "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net"
      },
      "date": "2001-02-10T15:05:15+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) This little piggie went to market (muckle spoilers)",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0012-0170@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "on 2/10/01 6:46 PM, Robert Borski at rborski at charter.net wrote:\n(Also not sure--since\nI've yet to do a reread--but the name Tartaros may not even crop up in the\nactual text of RETURN--if so it's mentioned sparingly.)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Tartaros is indeed mentioned in the text of RTTW, on p. 18.  I distinctly\nremember him being mentioned elsewhere, though I can't find the place now;\nIIRC, it was in a discussion of Windows.\n\n--Adam\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}