# Digest whorl.v005.n023 *The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 04 Jun 1997* > 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. --- ### Alice Turner *04 Jun 1997, 09:47* > Aren't priests the only ones who carry the gammadion? For > that matter, is anyone besides Silk mentioned as having one? > Furthermore, the gammadion does function as a tool for working on the > 'Windows', the sources of 'revelation' whether you regard that revelation > as true or false or (better I think) truth which conceals another truth? > And I don't think that Wolfe uses language in a sort of simple > equivalence such as gammadion = screwdriver and nothing more; after all, > he could have invented some science fictinal gobbledygook for futuristic > tools like they do on Star Trek (induced phase decoupler or some such > nonsense). All priests carry them and have been taught to use them to fix Windows. They get fancier with rank---Quetzal's is jeweled. Incus fixes Hammerstone with one, and his non-priestly black mechanic pals doubtless wield them too, possibly illegally or at least heretically. I don't think any of us thinks of a simple equivalent (gammadion = screwdriver), but it doesn't hurt to use an analogy. Mantis once came up with gammadion = Swiss Army knife, and I rather like that. -alga- --- ### Michael Richman *05 Jun 1997, 20:37 · follows Alice Turner* >> And I don't think that Wolfe uses language in a sort of simple >> equivalence such as gammadion = screwdriver and nothing more; after all, >> he could have invented some science fictinal gobbledygook for futuristic >> tools like they do on Star Trek (induced phase decoupler or some such >> nonsense). see below > All priests carry them and have been taught to use them to fix Windows. > They get fancier with rank---Quetzal's is jeweled. Incus fixes Hammerstone > with one, and his non-priestly black mechanic pals doubtless wield them > too, possibly illegally or at least heretically. Quetzal doesn't fix Hammerstone with a gammadion but with something called an "optisynapter" IIRC. The Quetzal was able to repair Maytera Marbles arm while Silk was not. Michael Richman 380 Homans Av Closter, NJ 07624 mrichman at bc.cybernex.net ---