From: j e <lo_phan17 at hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2001 06:57:07 +0000

A lull in activity on this list for a while - Seems like a good time to cast 
a tangents.

What is intended by the opening of Green's Jungles? A man named Cugino 
(cousin in Italia,) cuts a vine from a tree and makes a staff for a 
wandering holy man. My first impression of the words used to describe the 
cutting of the vine are that the vine is doubled in the way that Blue's 
indiginous life have double the limbs we expect. Note that the Writer 
mentions Nadi's eight-legged crocs just before writing:

Two mighty blows severed its stem twice, and a third a thick branch at the 
top of the severed portion. (pg 17 IGJ tpb)

I'm not sure of the symbolism here but I notice the writer ceases to stop 
pointing out this feature of Bluvian life forms. At least he does for the 
rest of IGJ, I haven't re-read RttW yet to look for more. And what about 
cousin Cugino? Is he in the family but not human? Why do his hands make the 
sound of two planks smacking rather than just sound like that? It occured to 
me he could be an actual wooden man as opposed to just a wood man...I'm 
looking for other chems on Blue and he's my first choice. My guess is the 
tech was just a bit different in Grandecitta.

It seems to me the book (I mean SS as a whole) is largely about family and 
the demons that family's have. The protagonist, through the structure of the 
book is simultaneously on a quest away from his family and trying to return 
to it. A lot of OBW deals with Horn's relationship with his son Sinew and 
adopted son Krait as all three of them move toward a kind of Hell. In 
Green's Jungles he tries to protect a family and its town.  I remember 
thinking at the end of RttW that it seemed sad that the family had been 
re-united with the exception of Sinew. That's not right though, the fact is 
Sinew, though still on Green, has survived and has a family. Not true for 
either Horn or Krait. Horn is a ghost in Silk's mind (I think) and as for 
Krait even his mother is dead.
I'm not sure that inhumi truly have familial relationships. My suspicion is 
that if they do it's a lie, in the way that inhumi love or city living is a 
masquerade. This aspect of the inhumi, I think, makes them creepiest and 
most real. Wolfe must describing aspects of our world, right? The line of 
division the book seems to draw is that you are in the family or outside of 
it. Is this symbolized by the vine and the tree? The Writer tries to bring 
an inhumi into the family but the effort fails and he kicks her to death. 
The wedding scene that follows ends in an inhumi slaughter.

Some incomplete thoughts for now... below are a few names I've tried 
translating on the web.

Italian
cugino - cousin
rigoglio - luxuriance
casco - helmet (united nations called caschi blu)
schiamazza -  din, racket.
decina as in la colonna delle decine, the tens column
onorifico honorary
soldo - money?
sfida - challenge
valicare - to cross
olmo - elm (note Peace fans, and who isn't a fan of peace ---the letter that 
begins IGJ starts Olmo has fallen
cuoio - hide
eco  - echo
tordo - thrush
terza - third

Hindu----not so sure about the accuracy but fwiw:
choora - four (the Rajan's knife)
hari mau every may?
jahlee jail?
chota - instantly, a snap, at once, a blot —
darjan - a dozen
chandi - fierce angry passionate
gaon - knowledge understanding knowing
ram  - a negative value a debit an obligation
pehla - an ornament worn by ladies

German
geier - vulture
wichote - german word but I can't find a definition

All for now --

eule

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