{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1248", "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": 1248, "subject": "Colonel Terzo", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2001-03-01T22:08:09+00:00", "last": "2001-03-03T11:02:43+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Borski", "address": "rborski at charter.net" }, "date": "2001-03-01T22:08:09+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Colonel Terzo", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Lots of little mysteries in the SHORT SUN books.\n\nFor instance: who is Colonel Terzo and why can he alone, of all the people\nthat Horn encounters, hear Seawrack's distant singing?\n\nWe learn, of course, that he can perceive the siren during his second\nencounter with Incanto, when he attempts to warn our hero about an imminent\nattack. In the midst of this, however, Terzo falls silent and asks Incanto,\n\"Can you hear something I don't?\" Oreb subsequently says, \"Sing song,\" and\nIncanto immediately breaks out singing, not only rendering one of Seawrack's\nlittle ditties in Neighborese, but translating it back into the Common\nTongue. Incanto, in between one and the other, is then heard to remark: \"He\nheard the music, I know; he stared at me wtih bulging eyes.\" But after\ntranslating the final line Terzo takes off running; if Icanto's been singing\nthe song that caused him to rape Seawrack, small wonder.\n\nLater, after Terzo is captured along with General Morello and the Duko, the\nlatter tells Horn, \"Terzo's terrified of you. He's in agony of every time\nyou speak to him.\" (More fear of the song's consequences?) And still later,\nwhen Mora and Jahlee are present, he interrupts Incanto, exclaiming, \"She's\nsinging.\"\n\n\"I know,\" Horn tells him. \"I've been trying to speak in spite of it.\" Later,\nwhen Jahlee asks who's singing, Incanto replies, \"Somone only I and Colonel\nTerzo can hear. It doesn't really concern him, and it certainly doesn't\nconcern the rest of you.\"\n\nAnd then finally one last time, when Hide asks his reminiscing father who\nSeawrack is, Horn replies: \"The woman that Colonel Terzo and I can hear.\"\n\nSo what's the deal here? Why can Colonel Terzo hear Seawrack singing? Is it\nmerely the power of suggestion? Are we to assume he may also have\nencountered Seawrack sometime earlier in his life? If so, there seems a\ncurious dearth of evidence.\n\nAnd what are we to make of his rather startling claims of friendship? During\ntheir first encounter, Terzo tells Incanto--who's just let on that he has\ntwo friends more knowledgeable than he about the rules of war--\"You have\nthree [friends]. I am the third, and you need all of us more than you\nthink.\" This may explain why Wolfe names him Terzo, since terzo is Italian\nfor three.\n\nThe Colonel also tells Horn that \"Someday you and I will speak of this\nafternoon over a bottle of wine,\" and later, when he comes to warn Horn\nabout the aforementioned imminent attack, explains that \"The Duko didn't\nsend me out here. Neither did General Morello. I came out of friendship for\nyou.\"\n\nAre we simply meant to assume that Terzo's amity is merely part of the\ngamesmanship of war? That by pretending to be a solicitous friend looking\nout for the welfare of the other he might encourage at least the idea of\nsurrender?\n\nPossibly. But of course I have another idea.\n\nNamely: what if Colonel Terzo is an inhumu? It seems likely that Wolfe would\nhave a few secret inhumi attempting to pass as humans in SS, just as there\nare more allegedly than Quetzal in the LS series. (Remind me some day to\npost my thoughts about Hossaan.)\n\nHaving Terzo imbibe Horn's memories of Seawrack and her haunting sirenic\nabilities would also explain why he alone of all others can hear her, just\nas the shared blood helps to explain the friendship bond. And perhaps\n\"Terzo\" is merely meant to mean that Terzo is the third passing inhumu in\nIGJ, along with Fava and Jahlee.\n\nWe never see him attempting to ride any animals, and he comes to his first\ntwo encounters with Incanto on foot. Oreb does not seem particularly\ndisturbed by him, but perhaps his alien otherness has been somewhat\nmollified by the sanguine presence of Horn/Silk. No physical description of\nhim is provided by Wolfe, so that's no help.\n\nStill and all, is there any evidence that Horn/Incanto has indeed been\nbitten by an inhumu?\n\nWell, yes.\n\nBecause shortly after Incanto takes up residence in the same little\nfarmhouse where he re-encounters Jahlee, Horn notes the following:\n\n\"I have been ill. Perhaps I can begin there. A strange sort of sickness--no\npain, just very tired. We brought the fourgoat back to camp, Hide going\nahead to make sure no one fired. It was very welcome and was skinned and was\neaten at once. I ate some of the meat. Much less than the others, but they\nwere not sick.\n\n\"No matter. I was ill, I feel quite certain, before we reached the fire.\"\n(IGJ, 296)\n\nHorn, who recognizes the symptoms, immediately suspects Jahlee:\n\n\"I asked whether she had been feeding from my veins. She denied it, but\nconceded that another might have, and examined me for the punctures of\nfangs, finding none.\n\n\"Or so she said.\n\n\"'We don't bring all sickness. Besides, you have a fever. We don't do\nthat.'\"\n\nBut wouldn't a tired, run-down individual be just the sort of victim an\nopportunistic virus would most likely infect? And Colonel Terzo, with or\nwithout Jahlee's cooperation, might easily have access to Horn in the\nformerly abandoned farmhouse.\n\nSo could he be an inhumu? And if so, is there any chance he's also Juganu?\n\nRobert Borski\n\n\n\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "2001-03-02T00:23:06+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Colonel Terzo", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Robert Borski wrote:\nFor instance: who is Colonel Terzo and why can he alone, of all the people\nthat Horn encounters, hear Seawrack's distant singing?\n\nWe learn, of course, that he can perceive the siren during his second\nencounter with Incanto, when he attempts to warn our hero about an imminent\nattack. In the midst of this, however, Terzo falls silent and asks Incanto,\n\"Can you hear something I don't?\" Oreb subsequently says, \"Sing song,\" and\nIncanto immediately breaks out singing, not only rendering one of Seawrack's\nlittle ditties in Neighborese, but translating it back into the Common\nTongue. Incanto, in between one and the other, is then heard to remark: \"He\nheard the music, I know; he stared at me wtih bulging eyes.\" But after\ntranslating the final line Terzo takes off running; if Icanto's been singing\nthe song that caused him to rape Seawrack, small wonder." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "My reading of this scene:\n\n1. Terzo notes that Horn's attention seems divided and asks what's up\n(note Terzo asks \"Can you hear something I don't\" not \"Do you hear what I\nhear?\").\n\n2. Horn sings along for Terzo.\n\n3. Horn's singing makes Terzo able to hear Seawrack for himself from that\nmoment on. Perhaps it's a gestalt type of thing, such that anyone can\nhear Seawrack's song once it is pointed out and he knows what to listen\nfor. Or perhaps it's that Horn shares some special link with Seawrack\nthat he's able to mediate to others. In any case, from that moment, Terzo\nhears Seawrack's singing, and attributes what he hears to Horn's sorcery,\nmakining him fear Horn as an enemy and value him is a potential friend.\n\nI don't think it's necessary to posit any previous relationship between\nTerzo and Seawrack, nor a hidden connection with Horn, such as sucking his\nblood. The moment where Horn sings for him is connection enough.\n\n-Rostrum\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "James Jordan", "address": "jbjordan4 at home.com" }, "date": "2001-03-03T11:02:43+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Colonel Terzo", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 12:23 AM 3/2/2001 -0500, Rostrum wrote:\nOn Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Robert Borski wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "For instance: who is Colonel Terzo and why can he alone, of all the people\nthat Horn encounters, hear Seawrack's distant singing?\n\nWe learn, of course, that he can perceive the siren during his second\nencounter with Incanto, when he attempts to warn our hero about an imminent\nattack. In the midst of this, however, Terzo falls silent and asks Incanto,\n\"Can you hear something I don't?\" Oreb subsequently says, \"Sing song,\" and\nIncanto immediately breaks out singing, not only rendering one of \nSeawrack's\nlittle ditties in Neighborese, but translating it back into the Common\nTongue. Incanto, in between one and the other, is then heard to remark: \"He\nheard the music, I know; he stared at me wtih bulging eyes.\" But after\ntranslating the final line Terzo takes off running; if Icanto's been \nsinging\nthe song that caused him to rape Seawrack, small wonder." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "My reading of this scene:\n\n1. Terzo notes that Horn's attention seems divided and asks what's up\n(note Terzo asks \"Can you hear something I don't\" not \"Do you hear what I\nhear?\")." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Etc.\n\nRostrum's argument seems sound enough, but Borski's other evidence is \nsuggestive. Terzo seems to know Horn from the past. I suspect he is indeed \nJugano. Very Lupine. Worth considering.\n\nPat. Nut.\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }