3 quoted lines
From: Nicholas Gevers <vermoulian at yahoo.com>
The resolution to the problem, I now argue, is another
much-questioned feature of TBSS's plot: astral travel.
If the inhumi reach Blue by astral travel, wouldn't the human-inhumi appear on Blue as humans, as Jahlee does on Urth? However, as a version of the secret that provides an offensive weapon, astral travel is very good, for those who are travelling are comatose. If you find their bodies, you can kill them easily. This isn't a "weapon too heavy to wield," though.
2 quoted lines
From: James Jordan <jbjordan4 at home.com>
I think the inhumi are capable of teleportation.
This solves my objection above (i.e., they aren't travelling astrally, they are teleporting), except that I see no evidence whatsoever for it in the book.
3 quoted lines
From: "Patrick O'Leary" <poleary at cecom.com>
What we take to be a story of a sinner who has reincarnated a Saint
and cannot bear the contrast between his soul's knowledge of goodness and his failure to live up to that model--is actually a sleight of hand, a narrative trick , a portrait of denial.
Thank you Patrick! A post which for me captures the strengths of the series, and probably gets very close to Wolfe's intent.
So many things in Wolfe's novels happen offscreen, and we learn about them only through allusions elsewhere, or must infer them ourselves. Capturing the importance of Silk's denial as the engine behind this in Short Sun is excellent.
Dave Lebling
aka vizcacha
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.