# Digest whorl.v001. *The Whorl list — 2 messages, 1 voices, 31 Jan 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. --- ### m.driussi *31 Jan 1997, 02:51* Reply: Item #2207153 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01# 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: <> "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. 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 --- ### m.driussi *01 Feb 1997, 03:21 · follows m.driussi* 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= Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com ---