{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1300", "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": 1300, "subject": "Inhumechanics", "messages": 4, "voices": 4, "first": "2001-03-28T10:43:05+00:00", "last": "2001-03-28T20:43:18+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan Parmenter", "address": "dan at lec.com" }, "date": "2001-03-28T10:43:05+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Inhumechanics", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Blattid writes:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Ummmm. A great big \"huh?\" just hit me.\n\nThe inhumi can imitate us.\n\nThe inhumi can imitate Neighbors.\n\nHow many limbs have the inhumi? And how can they imitate both us\nand the Neighbors? Or ... can they?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Oddly enough, this hit me this weekend too. I had come to think of\nthe Inhumi in their natural state as a kind of shapeless bat. I\nsuppose that the question again emerges: how much actual\nshape-shifting can they do? And what exactly do they have to work\nwith? We hear of limbs being stretched, but how many \"limbs\" do they\nhave? I'm imagining a \"radial\" design, a kind of soft umbrella shape\nwhich might give them as many possible \"limbs\" as they need, though\nthe shaping of hands, even poorly-functioning ones seems dicey as does\nany kind of walking, though it seems that the Inhumi can do both, if\nbadly. We hear on numerous occasions of reshaping facial features and\nthe wearing of powders and wigs, but I never assumed that they were\njust flying silly-putty with a head. There's also the seeming\n\"telepathic\" component. Wasn't it Borski who thought that this may\nwell be their primary mode of \"shape-shifting\"." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "How much \"information\" do the inhumi get from their victims? We\nknow that they get some kind of intelligence/memory/personality\ndownload; do they get some kind of genetic/somatic download also?\n\nIs this yet another case of Wolfe playing Lysenko games?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Lamarck games I hope. Wolfe has never advocated Lysenkoism and has\ntouched on the differences in several interviews and articles. But\nyes, Lamarckism is clearly one of Wolfe's recurring themes.\n\nShellac\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "ddanehy at siebel.com" }, "date": "2001-03-28T12:17:39+00:00", "subject": "RE: (whorl) Inhumechanics", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Black Jacques Shellac a écrit:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I had come to think of the Inhumi in their natural state as a kind of\nshapeless bat. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Whereas I had been thinking of them as looking like, well, leeches." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I'm imagining a \"radial\" design, a kind of soft umbrella\nshape which might give them as many possible \"limbs\" as\nthey need, though the shaping of hands, even poorly-\nfunctioning ones seems dicey as does any kind of walking,\nthough it seems that the Inhumi can do both, if badly. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "H'mmm. Leeches are kinda-sorta radial. At least their mouths are." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "There's also the seeming \"telepathic\" component. Wasn't it\nBorski who thought that this may well be their primary mode\nof \"shape-shifting\"." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " \nActually, I think it was Krait -- He says something to Horn\nabout people seeing what they expect to see and the inhumi\nexploiting that, which struck me as one of those \"I mean more\nthan I'm saying\" things." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Is this yet another case of Wolfe playing Lysenko games?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Lamarck games I hope. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Uh, yeah. That. Oops. That's right. I meant Lamarck. It\nwas a typo, honest. Lamarck.\n\nThe point of my question being, of course, that the inhumi's\nkids seem to inherit the characteristics their mummsies (and\npoppsies?) acquire from the various sentients they suck on.\n\nOkay, inhumi life cycle basics. They lay eggs in water. Baby \ninhumi come to a certain amount of development, apparently\neven including some degree of consciousness, in the eggses,\nprecioussss. They hatch in some kind of aquatically correct\nshape -- little crocogaters? Awww, cuuuuute. \n\nH'mmm. Wolfe describes them as reptilian; I think they're\nmore amphibious. Anywho, eventually they go on land and \nstart looking for something sentient to snack on.\n\nNow, how about this proposal: An inhumu (or inhuma) does not \nget his(her) smarts from who he(she) feeds on, but on who \nhis(her) mother (parents?) fed on.\n\nNo; that won't work -- viz. Fava having to feast on children \nnow and then to counteract the effects of feeding on Granny.\nOr is that just physical appearance? I'm so confused...\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Kevin J. Maroney", "address": "kmaroney at ungames.com" }, "date": "2001-03-28T16:26:20+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Inhumechanics", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 10:43 AM 3/28/01 -0500, Shellac wrote:\nWe hear on numerous occasions of reshaping facial features and\nthe wearing of powders and wigs, but I never assumed that they were\njust flying silly-putty with a head. There's also the seeming\n\"telepathic\" component. Wasn't it Borski who thought that this may\nwell be their primary mode of \"shape-shifting\"." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I actually think I was the original advocate of the \"inhumi as projective\ntelepaths\" theory, but I could be wrong on both counts. \n\nIt's clear that the inhumi do physically deform to resemble the things they\nwant to resemble, but there are also some textual hints that they make\ntheir prey see them as they want to see them. (I wonder if they can only do\nthis to one target species at a time. This would explain why animals can\ndetect them when they're posing as humans.)" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com\nKitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction\nhttp://www.nyrsf.com\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": "2001-03-28T20:43:18+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Inhumechanics", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Wed, 28 Mar 2001, Kevin J. Maroney wrote:\nIt's clear that the inhumi do physically deform to resemble the things they\nwant to resemble, but there are also some textual hints that they make\ntheir prey see them as they want to see them. (I wonder if they can only do\nthis to one target species at a time. This would explain why animals can\ndetect them when they're posing as humans.)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "My impression was a weak psi-ability that doesn't influence what people\nsee so much as encourage them not to look too closely and to ignore the\nflaws in the physical disguise, but that it could be overcome by someone\ndetermined to pay attention and be wary. But I don't think it's really\nspelled out. They might be influencing perceptions as well.\n\n-Rostrum\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }