Subject: (whorl) Inhumi (RTTW spoilers)

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 13:41:44 +0000

on 2/11/01 5:03 PM, Dave Lebling at dlebling at shore.net wrote:

> 6) The Secret of the Inhumi. I feel a little let down here. We figured this
> one out in book one. It doesn't live up to some of the remarks made about it
> by Horn himself. As we've pointed out, how would humanity in general knowing
> the secret hurt the inhumi? Why would the inhumi care one way or another if
> the secret came out? It's so terrible that Nettle has to leave Blue because
> Silk tells it to her. Why? What possible defense against the inhumi does
> knowing the secret enable?

I agree; it's both an anticlimax itself and inconsistent with some of Horn's
earlier statements (I catalogued these in posts on July 25 and Aug. 2 of
last year).  I was also disappointed with the lack of resolution of the
human-inhumi conflict.  I wasn't expecting Horn to lead the way to
brotherhood between humans and inhumi, but I thought he would find either
some kind of modus vivendi, or else some way to defeat the inhumi without
violating his oath (I was expecting this to be his "historical role," in the
same way that bringing the New Sun was Severian's and facilitating the
exodus was Silk's).  Instead the whole human-inhumi isse is just left up in
the air (along with some other subplots).

While I'm at it, another question about inhumi, deriving from IGJ but given
added point by the revelations of RTTW.  At the end of Chapter 23, after
"Horn" has finished explaining to Hide that the inhumi derived their
intelligence from humans, as they had earlier from the Neighbors, Hide asks
what happened to the inhumi once the Neighbors on Blue had been hunted to
the point where it was no longer worthwhile for the inhumi to fly from
Green.  Horn says "'I think you know,'" and the chapter ends.  What does he
mean?  I can think of two possibilities:  One is that the inhumi enslaved
the Neighbors who had travelled to Green, as they do the humans; but since
the Neighbors can "go away," I'm not sure how this would work. The other,
which follows more logically from the discussion, is that the inhumi
reverted back to beasts.  But this would mean that, in introducing inhumi to
the Whorl, the Neighbors were actually creating the inhumi as a threat for
humans, by restoring their intelligence.

--Adam

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---

From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 16:26:45 +0000

Adam wrote:

(much snipped)
> But this would mean that, in introducing inhumi to the Whorl, the
> Neighbors were actually creating the inhumi as a threat for humans,
> by restoring their intelligence.

Which is what I sort of believe.  I'm also beginning to wonder if Silk
(and the inhumi) thinking the secret is so important is a
self-delusion and attempt to escape reality much like Silk's denial of
who he is.

I have some suspicion that the personal-level "contrived happy ending"
(which doesn't feel so contrived to me) of RTTW is meant to contrast
some grim implications for Blue & Green.

But I need to reread the whole thing.

--
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

---

From: David DiGiacomo <dd at adobe.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 13:35:26 +0000

>reverted back to beasts.

The Neighbors of Green sent their slave inhumi to prey on the Neighbors of
Blue.  Once that source of blood was exhausted, the inhumi turned on the
Neighbors of Green, ultimately destroying their civilization.

It would not be very satisfying if these very bad Neighbors could escape
the consequences of their evil through astral travel.  It makes more sense
to me that they were damned and died in the hell of Green.  Like the
people of Viron, they seem to have neglected to bring their gods with
them, and suffered greatly as a result.

On the other hand, the Neighbors on Blue would have had the assistance of
their gods in developing astral travel.  Perhaps they "went away" in order
to avoid having to kill all the inhumi.

>Neighbors were actually creating the inhumi as a threat for humans, by
>restoring their intelligence.

It seems odd that the inhumi would be able to retain the astral travel
ability of the Neighbors, but none of their intelligence, so I think that
they may not have devolved completely.

---

From: Fernando Gouvea <fqgouvea at colby.edu>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 11:06:41 +0000

About the secret of the inhumi: can we trust the text here? Since Silk/Horn
is writing a "public" document, might he have put down a bowdlerized
version of the secret so as to make the point that it was revealed to
Nettle without thereby revealing it to us?

Fernando

-- 
======================================
Fernando Q. Gouvea                              
Dept. of Mathematics                            Editor, FOCUS and MAA Online
Colby College                                   http://www.maa.org
Waterville, ME 04901
fqgouvea at colby.edu                              
======================================

He's just a politician trying to save both his faces ...

---

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 22:10:54 +0000

on 2/13/01 9:26 PM, Alex David Groce at Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu
wrote:

> I'm also beginning to wonder if Silk
 
The suspicion had occurred to me that "Horn" was wrong in thinking that the
inhumi thought that their secret could be used to destroy them (since I
couldn't find any place where an inhumu/a actually says so); and that they
were obeying him in Gaon for reasons of their own.  But I rejected this
hypothesis in the end, on the grounds that it's hard to see why "Horn" would
think that the inhumi thought the secret could be used to destroy them,
unless Krait had told him so.

--Adam