{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/55",
    "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": 55,
    "subject": "The Quetzal Question; Names?",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-01-31T09:41:49+00:00",
    "last": "1997-01-31T09:41:49+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0002-0092@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David_Lebling",
        "address": "david_lebling at avid.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-01-31T09:41:49+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) The Quetzal Question; Names?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: m.driussi at genie.com"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Great to see you here.  _Lexicon_ is my favorite meta-book."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "?Is Silk even =human=?"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Now, there's a provocative question! I'm pretty sure he's human, not a\nhierogrammate larva, for example.  It _is_ interesting that the sleepers\n(like Mamelta) don't talk, though for different reasons than Apheta.\nDuring his near-death experience, Silk's mother doesn't talk."
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Q is anti-landfall"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I hadn't thought of him that way, but it's a good idea. Quetzal\nnominally discourages theophanies to prevent the populace learning that\nPas is dead. That is also why he suppresses child sacrifice (note that\nwhen Scylla instructs the tunnel trio in how to get in touch with her,\nshe says \"Offer fifty or so children, that ought to get my attention\").\n\nDigression here.  What is it about sacrifice that attracts the attention\nof the gods?  One imagines a little routine running in Mainframe that\ncounts and evaluates the victims: \"Ooo, a black ram, better email\nTartaros!\"  End digression.\n\nWe've been arguing a lot about Quetzal's motives and true attitude. I\nhad thought that he was basically trying to be good (though his choice\nof Green in the lander was troubling).  I get the impression that he has\nbeen in power for over thirty years.  I wonder if the Whorl has been at\nits destination for that long as well?  We are never told explicitly how\nlong it takes Pas to get angry that his plan isn't being fulfilled,\nthough we are told that even one lander leaving will give a long\nbreathing space.  I propose that Quetzal did not enter the Whorl until\nit arrived at the Blue/Green system, and it's been there for more than\nthirty years.  But why is Quetzal anti-landfall?  As I said in my first\npost to this newsletter, Quetzal is a key (perhaps the key) to\nunderstanding the story.  Is Quetzal the sympathetic Satan of _Paradise\nLost_? (As an old story goes, a child comes home upset about the Sunday\nschool play. \"What's the matter, dear?\" \"I'm going to be Adam in the\nplay.\" \"Why are you unhappy? Adam's the _lead_!\" \"But the snake has all\nthe lines!\")"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "[Other vampire legends]"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I haven't seen anything to indicate that any of Quetzal's proposed\nvictims (or patients) is either in his thrall or immune to inhumi. Of\ncourse we don't know much about Blue/Green yet.  We have two victims,\nTeasel and Mattak, and two \"patients\", Silk and Villus.  None seem\nbetter or worse off in the long term for Quetzal's ministrations.\n\nTo my mind Quetzal is more to be identified with Quetzalcoatl. Wolfe has\nbeen mining Central and South American culture and mythology since the\n_New Sun_ books.  Note that Viron is very Latin American.  The language\nis influenced by Spanish, they drink mate, blue-eyed people are rare\n(\"one in a hundred\"), Tussah's appearance is (to my mind) very Mayan\n(\"broad flat cheeks, high forehead\"), and so on.\n\nA question I've been meaning to investigate is the origins of the names\nof the gods.  They all seem faintly Greek, and some are obvious (Pas,\nEchidna, Tartaros, Scylla).  Are the rest other ancient Greek monsters?\n\nThere are also a few names that don't seem to fit the standard Viron\nnaming scheme.  The only one I can recall at this moment (should take\nnotes!) is Feist.  What's a Feist?  (I knew \"Incus,\" particularly when\nhe mentioned a brother named, uh, Patella).\n\n     Dave\n     (david_lebling at avid.com)\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}