Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v001.

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 02:51:00 +0000

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

Reply:  Item #2207153 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#

<I've tried posting this twice already over the last few days--will
the third try be the charm?>

Hello there everybody.  I've been reading the archives since
December and now I've finally managed to get aboard.

My name is Michael Andre-Driussi, which is usually too much to
type out.  And Michael is so very common these days.  So you can call me
mantis, which is a good Vironese name (though I'll admit the lower case
`m' is something of an affectation).  This will come in handy
whenever I go off into mantic mode, like this:

<<Spoiler Alert>>

"Consider Silk.  What is silk?  A cocoon woven by a worm, a
shelter in which metamorphosis takes place, transforming the larva into
the butterfly (or the moth, let's be honest).  Butterfly?  Associated
with Molpe.  Butterfly-woman of TBNS?  Tzadkiel.  Larvae metamorphosizing?
The stages of Hierogrammate development in URTH, from larva (like Apheta)
to hierarch (like Venant, Severian's surrogate) to Hierogrammate
(like Tzadkiel, who is ship/captain/butterfly/goddess/angel).  ?Is Silk
even =human=?"

Right.  Well, back to my self-introduction.  I've been re-reading
THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN and discussing it with Alice K. Turner, whom
you've already met.  <hi alice--wave>

Which brings us to the question of ghost Pike.  I took the
manifestation to be an aquastor, right down to the silvery
dissolve.  Alice argued that it was ol' Quetzal.  There was an inhumu in
that room, presumably come to check out the graffiti artist who had
taken up Pike's old tag.  If Q is the only inhumu on the Whorl (and
this does seem like the strong argument) then the inhumu flying away
in bat form (sort of like the plumed snake form Q uses to get into
his tree) is Q himself--but then there is the embarassing question of
"Why would he come right back to pull a ghost Pike stunt?"

Against: in Q's other disappearing acts he never does the silver
mist, it is more the blackout (heading down the stairs in Blood's
basement) or blankout (leaving the dinner table); Q is
anti-landfall (and Pike is a piece of the Outsider's enlightenment
that points toward landfall); Q is anti-theophany, suggesting that
he's anti-ghosting as well (wouldn't want Mainframe messing around
with the Cargo, nossir).

For: there are a couple of points in the text (at the jewelery
store, for instance) where Silk sees/hears Q and thinks of Pike, so
there is some sort of "old man/senior patera" similarity about them;
while there is evidence of eidolons (ghosts beamed into the brain)
over at Mainframe, there is no other evidence of aquastors (ghosts
with enough substance to pass for "real").

Well, Alice can argue it pretty convincingly.

More about Quetzal: interesting, this idea of Q reviving a dead
Silk through injections.  I was investigating a similar notion with the cases
of the children Teasel and Villus.  As David points out, Villus was
bitten by Echinda's snakes and then Q quickly whisked him away .
. . for some first aid, it seems, rather than a quick snack.  An antidote
to poisons, maybe?  Or possibly just the more mundane sucking the
blood, cleaning it, replacing it?  And Teasel, why is this little girl
singled out for a vampire attack?  (Well, I have theories, but nevermind
that now.)

If we assume the old man with wings who bit her is Q (which seems
nearly irrefutable), then we might wonder if other vampire
legends come into play--is he making her a vampire or a thrall?  Or is he
somehow vaccinating her =against= vampires?  So that inhumi will
no longer see her as kibble but as kin?  “This is all speculation”

THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN is something we might call "Gene Wolfe's
Book of Metamorphoses," and like Ovid's book, it is also a book about
Love.

=mantis=

P.S. The Books section seems to be requesting information?  For
instance, it says "What is this?" before YOUNG WOLFE.  YOUNG WOLFE is a
collection of very early stories by Wolfe, stories that are very
hard to find otherwise.

And there was a request for original dates of publication?

NIGHTSIDE THE LONG SUN [1993]
LAKE OF THE LONG SUN [1994]
CALDE OF THE LONG SUN [1994]
EXODUS FROM THE LONG SUN [1996]

SHADOW & CLAW [1994]
SWORD & CITADEL [1994?]

THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN [1987]
CASTLE OF DAYS [1992]
LEXICON URTHUS [1994]

DEVIL IN A FOREST [1976]
PEACE [1975]
SOLDIER OF THE MIST [1986]
SOLDIER OF ARETE [1989]

CASTLEVIEW [1990]
PANDORA BY HOLLY HOLLANDER [1990]
STOREYS FROM THE OLD HOTEL [1988]
FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS [1972]
ENDANGERED SPECIES [1989]
YOUNG WOLFE [1992]

=mantis=

Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com

---

From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Sat, 01 Feb 1997 03:21:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #4834984 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#

Re: Aloe, "a pious woman of the Sun Street quarter" (III, list).
("Agalloch" is the same thing, not used in the text, but not nearly
as cute--nor as quick to type in, I hasten to add.)

David,

Thank you for your kind words re: Lexicon.  Here's the stuff I
promised earlier:

==Those Gods==
WHORL        GREEK MEANING (according to R. Graves)
Pas          Pan (All, "Pasture")
Echidna      a monster ("she viper")
Scylla       a sea monster ("she who rends")
Molpe        molpus ("melody")
Tartaros     a chthonic god ("far west" a Creten word?)
Hierax       ("hawk")
Thelxiepeia  name of a Siren ("soothing words")
Phaea        a sow goddess ("shining one")
Sphigx       sphingx ("throttler")*
Kypris       ancient name for Aphrodite ("the island Cypris")

"g" is another way.

Pan, the old fertility god of satyrs with panpipes and all, is thought
by some to be a debased form of a god that was once god of
everything, since "pan" means "all."  This is also the famous god who
died in antiquity: a sailor heard some Egyptians crying "Great Pan is
dead!" and he reported it back home in Greece.  The news rocked the
ancient world.  Turns out that the sailor mis-heard--the Egyptians
were really saying the equivalent of "Osiris is dead!" as a part of
their yearly vegetation god ressurection rite.

Since "hierax" means hawk, my thoughts turn to Horus.  Not surprising
since I've just been writing about his dad, Osiris.  But this hawk,
rather than avenging his father's murder, seems to have been in on
the conspiracy to kill him.

=mantis=