{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/54", "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": 54, "subject": "Digest whorl.v001.", "messages": 2, "voices": 1, "first": "1997-01-31T02:51:00+00:00", "last": "1997-02-01T03:21:00+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-01-31T02:51:00+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v001.", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #2207153 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#\n\n\n\nHello there everybody. I've been reading the archives since\nDecember and now I've finally managed to get aboard.\n\nMy name is Michael Andre-Driussi, which is usually too much to\ntype out. And Michael is so very common these days. So you can call me\nmantis, which is a good Vironese name (though I'll admit the lower case\n`m' is something of an affectation). This will come in handy\nwhenever I go off into mantic mode, like this:\n\n<>\n\n\n\"Consider Silk. What is silk? A cocoon woven by a worm, a\nshelter in which metamorphosis takes place, transforming the larva into\nthe butterfly (or the moth, let's be honest). Butterfly? Associated\nwith Molpe. Butterfly-woman of TBNS? Tzadkiel. Larvae metamorphosizing?\nThe stages of Hierogrammate development in URTH, from larva (like Apheta)\nto hierarch (like Venant, Severian's surrogate) to Hierogrammate\n(like Tzadkiel, who is ship/captain/butterfly/goddess/angel). ?Is Silk\neven =human=?\"\n\nRight. Well, back to my self-introduction. I've been re-reading\nTHE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN and discussing it with Alice K. Turner, whom\nyou've already met. \n\nWhich brings us to the question of ghost Pike. I took the\nmanifestation to be an aquastor, right down to the silvery\ndissolve. Alice argued that it was ol' Quetzal. There was an inhumu in\nthat room, presumably come to check out the graffiti artist who had\ntaken up Pike's old tag. If Q is the only inhumu on the Whorl (and\nthis does seem like the strong argument) then the inhumu flying away\nin bat form (sort of like the plumed snake form Q uses to get into\nhis tree) is Q himself--but then there is the embarassing question of\n\"Why would he come right back to pull a ghost Pike stunt?\"\n\nAgainst: in Q's other disappearing acts he never does the silver\nmist, it is more the blackout (heading down the stairs in Blood's\nbasement) or blankout (leaving the dinner table); Q is\nanti-landfall (and Pike is a piece of the Outsider's enlightenment\nthat points toward landfall); Q is anti-theophany, suggesting that\nhe's anti-ghosting as well (wouldn't want Mainframe messing around\nwith the Cargo, nossir).\n\nFor: there are a couple of points in the text (at the jewelery\nstore, for instance) where Silk sees/hears Q and thinks of Pike, so\nthere is some sort of \"old man/senior patera\" similarity about them;\nwhile there is evidence of eidolons (ghosts beamed into the brain)\nover at Mainframe, there is no other evidence of aquastors (ghosts\nwith enough substance to pass for \"real\").\n\nWell, Alice can argue it pretty convincingly.\n\nMore about Quetzal: interesting, this idea of Q reviving a dead\nSilk through injections. I was investigating a similar notion with the cases\nof the children Teasel and Villus. As David points out, Villus was\nbitten by Echinda's snakes and then Q quickly whisked him away .\n. . for some first aid, it seems, rather than a quick snack. An antidote\nto poisons, maybe? Or possibly just the more mundane sucking the\nblood, cleaning it, replacing it? And Teasel, why is this little girl\nsingled out for a vampire attack? (Well, I have theories, but nevermind\nthat now.)\n\nIf we assume the old man with wings who bit her is Q (which seems\nnearly irrefutable), then we might wonder if other vampire\nlegends come into play--is he making her a vampire or a thrall? Or is he\nsomehow vaccinating her =against= vampires? So that inhumi will\nno longer see her as kibble but as kin? “This is all speculation”\n\nTHE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN is something we might call \"Gene Wolfe's\nBook of Metamorphoses,\" and like Ovid's book, it is also a book about\nLove.\n\n=mantis=\n\nP.S. The Books section seems to be requesting information? For\ninstance, it says \"What is this?\" before YOUNG WOLFE. YOUNG WOLFE is a\ncollection of very early stories by Wolfe, stories that are very\nhard to find otherwise.\n\nAnd there was a request for original dates of publication?\n\nNIGHTSIDE THE LONG SUN [1993]\nLAKE OF THE LONG SUN [1994]\nCALDE OF THE LONG SUN [1994]\nEXODUS FROM THE LONG SUN [1996]\n\nSHADOW & CLAW [1994]\nSWORD & CITADEL [1994?]\n\nTHE URTH OF THE NEW SUN [1987]\nCASTLE OF DAYS [1992]\nLEXICON URTHUS [1994]\n\nDEVIL IN A FOREST [1976]\nPEACE [1975]\nSOLDIER OF THE MIST [1986]\nSOLDIER OF ARETE [1989]\n\nCASTLEVIEW [1990]\nPANDORA BY HOLLY HOLLANDER [1990]\nSTOREYS FROM THE OLD HOTEL [1988]\nFIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS [1972]\nENDANGERED SPECIES [1989]\nYOUNG WOLFE [1992]\n\n=mantis=\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-02-01T03:21:00+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v001.", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #4834984 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#\n\nRe: Aloe, \"a pious woman of the Sun Street quarter\" (III, list).\n(\"Agalloch\" is the same thing, not used in the text, but not nearly\nas cute--nor as quick to type in, I hasten to add.)\n\nDavid,\n\nThank you for your kind words re: Lexicon. Here's the stuff I\npromised earlier:\n\n==Those Gods==\nWHORL GREEK MEANING (according to R. Graves)\nPas Pan (All, \"Pasture\")\nEchidna a monster (\"she viper\")\nScylla a sea monster (\"she who rends\")\nMolpe molpus (\"melody\")\nTartaros a chthonic god (\"far west\" a Creten word?)\nHierax (\"hawk\")\nThelxiepeia name of a Siren (\"soothing words\")\nPhaea a sow goddess (\"shining one\")\nSphigx sphingx (\"throttler\")*\nKypris ancient name for Aphrodite (\"the island Cypris\")\n\n\"g\" is another way.\n\nPan, the old fertility god of satyrs with panpipes and all, is thought\nby some to be a debased form of a god that was once god of\neverything, since \"pan\" means \"all.\" This is also the famous god who\ndied in antiquity: a sailor heard some Egyptians crying \"Great Pan is\ndead!\" and he reported it back home in Greece. The news rocked the\nancient world. Turns out that the sailor mis-heard--the Egyptians\nwere really saying the equivalent of \"Osiris is dead!\" as a part of\ntheir yearly vegetation god ressurection rite.\n\nSince \"hierax\" means hawk, my thoughts turn to Horus. Not surprising\nsince I've just been writing about his dad, Osiris. But this hawk,\nrather than avenging his father's murder, seems to have been in on\nthe conspiracy to kill him.\n\n=mantis=\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com" } ] } ] }