Sphigx

Quill just prodded me into a new thought: Remember the little statues of Sphigx for sale in the Viron marketplace, by which Crane sends his spy messages to Trivigaunte? Well, those statues are actually illegal in Trivigaunte because of their no-image ruling! -alga- Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com

Reply: Item #4804845 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00# Patrick, You are right: cat' and bird get best lines! (Yes, to the unspoken question: I do think the talking animals are also specially designed god mounts, so that the gods can ride around in their emblematic animals. Sphigx could ride Tick like a wizard using a familiar; Pas, Tartaros, Hierax could use Oreb the same way, in a manner not unlike Odin with his black birds. I don't see any evidence that such has happened--though I do continue to wonder what may have passed between Doctor Crane and Oreb when they were alone in the room together--I only offer this as an explanation of how talking animals might fit into the god plan aspect of the mission.) Re: "Planet-Breaker," yes, I remember that, too (CASTLE OF DAYS, 297). (I still think it is especially funny since one could legitimately give that title to THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN. "Not that I would seriously propose doing so," I hasten to add.) And in this LONG SUN case, it actually =was= listed in Library of Congress terms as one of those silly titles. alga, Re: statues. Hey, now there's something. Somewhere out in the barren desert there must be a pit where the traders chuck the statues before they get to Trivigaunte. ("I guess we could call it a sphincter," he said, making an ass of himself.) =mantis= Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com