{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/344", "note": "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.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 344, "subject": "Train from Wolfeland", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1997-06-14T21:15:00+00:00", "last": "1997-06-14T21:37:24+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-06-14T21:15:00+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Train from Wolfeland", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Here they are, the Answers to the trainload of questions. Without\nany further preamble --\n\n1. \"Who or what is Oreb?\" Oreb is a night chough.\n\n2. \"What is his [Wolfe's] attraction to (pretenses that turn out to\nbe true?\" I'm sure it must be the unconscious hope that some of mine\nwill.\n\n3. \"What was Typhon's purpose in lanunching the Whorl and was the\nBlue/Green system the intended destination?\" Knowing Typhon as I do,\nhe probably had at least half a dozen purposes; but certainly one of\nthe chief must have been self-aggrandizement -- to return human kind\nto the stars would be a very great thing indeed. Yes, the Blue-Green\nsystem was the intended destination.\n\n4. \"Pike's ghost.\" It was seen in the manse, not the manteion; it\nwasn't machine made. I have not played Starcross, but then\nSTARCROSSER'S LANDFALL was David Hartwell's title, not mine; so it\nseems likely enough that David has. [Mantis note: obviously I took\nthe liberty in adding a rider to vizcacha's question, explaining what\n\"Starcross\" is, etc.]\n\n5. \"Silk's englightenments.\" They are purely miraculous.\n\n6. \"What is the source of information for the auguries?\" Silk is.\nHe is to some degree psychic and sometimes lucky; he also forms\nunconscious conclusions, as we all do. In other words, he foretells\nthe future very much as others do with cards or crystals. What are\nthe very accurate divinations to which this questioner refers?\n\n7. \"What are Quetzal's motives?\" For what? He hates the\nAyuntamiento and would like a thriving colony of human beings on\nGreen.\n\n8. \"Valleys filled with shadows.\" This one throws me completely.\nWhere is the difficulty, unless all the valleys run parallel to the\nLong Sun? Naturally they don't.\n\n9. \"Kypris's beam.\" It's the electron beam of the Sacred Window in\nthe former manteion. Kypris is saying that she would have shown\nherself in the Window, had it been possible.\n\n10. \"What are the dimensions of the Whorl?\" I don't know.\n\n11. \"What changed Mint's character?\" Kypris. What I was trying to\nsay is that there is more to love than doves and simpering.\n\n12. \"Who was Blood's father?\" Patera Pike.\n\n13. \"Was the live cargo of the Whorl only put on board to preserve\nthe `wild' half of mankind so the Typhon/Pas entity could establish a\nvital human vassal state on the destination world, or did the Inhumi\n(sic) require the `wild' parts to satisfy their blood lust?\"\nNeither. Typhon did not know about the inhumi [and] would have done\neverything possible to keep them out of the Whorl if he had. He\ncould not be certain that the sleepers would not die before the Whorl\nreached its destination, or that they would be able to form viable\nsocieties when they were awakened. He coppered his bets by sending\nhumans in three forms: cargo, sleepers, and frozen embryos. The\nfirst arrived largely intact. Some of the second and most of the\nthird were lost.\n\n14. \"Is there a member (current, former, or future of the Order of\nSeekers for Truth and Penitence on the Whorl?\" I'm going to\ninterpret this questino in the broadest possible sense, since that\nseems to be what Parsons wants. Yes, there is. It is Silk.\n\n15. \"Is the Outsider a form of Severian?\" No. Severian is a form of\nthe Outsider.\n\n=mantis=" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Patri10629", "address": "patri10629 at aol.com" }, "date": "1997-06-14T21:37:24+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Train from Wolfeland", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thank you Michael. And thank you Gene.\n\nThe biggest shock (for me) is Patera Pike being Blood's dad. I wonder if\nthere are clues in the text?\n\nFor once I doubt Wolfe means more than meets the eye when he claims \"Silk is\na seeker of truth and pentitence\". He is, of course, that. Maybe the\nquestion he wants us to consider is: What do Severian and Silk have in\ncommon? Perhaps they both arrive at the same place, adopt the same mantle of\nleader/saint--the surrogate presence of God. The help the Outsider has\npromised is them, and, naturally I suppose, us.\n\nA very Catholic idea, it seems to me. \n\nThey happen to be the heroes of their adventures. As we are of ours.\n\nThanks for fun!\n\nNot to be snotty but it seems obvious to me The Outsider is God (note the\nlack of quotation marks:)--the only thing I disagree with in John Clute's\nlovely review of the LONG SUN BOOKS in the New York Review Of Science\nFiction. \n\nI have no right to feel smug about this: Damn don't I feel like a dufus? Ah,\nMr. Wolfe, he asked cleverly ....What's Oreb? \"Oreb is a black bird.\" So much\nfor my sly interrogation. I simply wondered if the bird--oh never mind.\n\nPS: Reccomend Wolfe's interview in the latest INTERZONE. Fun stuff.\n\nbest as always\n\nPatrick O'Leary" } ] } ] }