Subject: (whorl) Sphigx

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 1997 11:06:28 +0000

[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

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

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 1997 21:22:00 +0000

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=