{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1356", "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": 1356, "subject": "The Crab Monster", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2001-04-16T00:58:12+00:00", "last": "2001-04-27T15:32:42+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Borski", "address": "rborski at charter.net" }, "date": "2001-04-16T00:58:12+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) The Crab Monster", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Here's another little mystery from ON BLUE'S WATERS.\n\nWhile at sea, sailing to Pajarocu, with Babbie and Seawrack aboard, Horn\nrecords the following encounter during a storm with an apparition from the\ndepths:\n\n\"Something climbed into our sloop that night that was neither a beast nor a\nman, and was not a thing of the sea, nor even a thing of the air like the\ninhumi...\n\n\"If you do not believe this, believe at least that I believed that I saw it.\nAnd Seawrack also saw it. She confirmed for me that she had, although she\ndid not like to speak of it. Babbie saw it, too, and rushed at it; it laid\nhold of him as a man might lay hold of a lady's lapdog, and would, I\nbelieve, have thrown him over the side and into the raging water if Seawrack\nhad not prevented it. In appearance it was like a man of many arms and legs,\nlong dead and covered with crabs and little shellfish and other things; and\nyet it moved and possessed great strength, although I think it feared the\nstorm as much or more than we.\" (161-162)\n\nHorn subsequently imagines the monster to be some sort of alien Tithonis,\ngranted immortality by the gods of Blue, but throwing itself into the sea\nbecause it has tired of life, or despaired because of the Neighbors'\noffplanet exodus, or it wants to be near the deity that granted it eternal\nlife.\n\nI, of course, don't believe any of this. Rather, I suspect the crab monster\nis the Mother in her native, most unaltered, form.\n\nWe know from Seawrack that the Mother is capable of shape-shifting, so this\ninfers a natural, unshifted ur-state--plus the Scylla of classical mythology\nhad six legs, matching the monster's many limbs. Seawrack not wanting to\ntalk about the incident is consistent with her similar reticence at times\nabout discussing the Mother, while the monster being afraid of the storm\nmight well symbolize Whorlish Scylla's fear of Pas/Typhon. But what really\nseals the deal for me is that the recently mutilated Seawrack is able to\nstop this monster of great strength from flinging the rather formidable\nBabbie--who most of you believe, after all, has severed Seawrack's arm--into\nthe storm-tossed sea. Horn does not detail how she accomplishes this, but\ndoesn't the most likely scenario involve our little merfrow somehow\ncommunicating with her former protectress, either vocally or otherwise,\ntelling the Mother to lay off, Babbie's a mate, please don't toss him into\nthe briny blue?\n\nRobert Borski\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Spectacled Bear", "address": "spectacled.bear at pobox.com" }, "date": "2001-04-24T13:34:29+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) The Crab Monster", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 06:58 2001-04-16, Robert Borski wrote:\nHorn subsequently imagines the monster to be some sort of alien Tithonis,\ngranted immortality by the gods of Blue, but throwing itself into the sea\nbecause it has tired of life, or despaired because of the Neighbors'\noffplanet exodus, or it wants to be near the deity that granted it eternal\nlife.\n\nI, of course, don't believe any of this. Rather, I suspect the crab monster\nis the Mother in her native, most unaltered, form." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, it would account for Seawrack being able to stop it throwing Babbie\noverboard (no easy task) and for it being in the story at all. So yes, it\ncould very well be the Mother. That doesn't make Horn automatically wrong,\nof course, though I'm sure he is just making all that up.\n\nPeter.\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "David DiGiacomo", "address": "dd at adobe.com" }, "date": "2001-04-27T15:32:42+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) The Crab Monster", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 06:58 2001-04-16, Robert Borski wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "Horn subsequently imagines the monster to be some sort of alien Tithonis,\ngranted immortality by the gods of Blue, but throwing itself into the sea\nbecause it has tired of life, or despaired because of the Neighbors'\noffplanet exodus, or it wants to be near the deity that granted it eternal\nlife.\n\nI, of course, don't believe any of this. Rather, I suspect the crab monster\nis the Mother in her native, most unaltered, form." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Well, it would account for Seawrack being able to stop it throwing Babbie\noverboard (no easy task) and for it being in the story at all. So yes, it\ncould very well be the Mother. That doesn't make Horn automatically wrong,\nof course, though I'm sure he is just making all that up." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Is the crab creature the entity that supplies fish to Mucor?\n(I still can't make any sense of that scene.)\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }