{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/614", "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": 614, "subject": "Typhon's Mission", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1999-07-01T15:17:03+00:00", "last": "1999-07-02T10:43:26+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Josh Smith", "address": "vveakling at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1999-07-01T15:17:03+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Typhon's Mission", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Hello All,\n\nI'm new to the list, just finished Exodus last night,\nmy heart is racing, and my mind is reeling about one\nissue: did Typhon send the ship to search for a new\nhome (sort of the \"default setting\" for any big space\nexodus story), or did he sell out the humans to the\ninhumi (or literally sell them as food)? - By the way,\nI think that the act of springing a dilemma of that\norder on us in the last few pages constitutes one of\nthe most startling scope-shifts in literary history.\n\nI raced through the archives of the list and found\nthis before my eyes just got too tired: (if you've\nspent more time on the \"Cargo\" issue, and solved\neverything by now, I apologize for the waste of time)\n\nAlice Turner wrote:\n\"One more explanation: I'm of the opinion that the\nWhorl is a supply ship,\nthat the Cargo, which consists of the dregs of Urth\nsociety, was sold to\nthe inhumi by Pas/Typhon as a food supply. Q was in\neffect a \"shepherd,\"\nbut over time he turned into something of a Good\nShepherd, against his own\nnature. I don't expect everyone to agree however\n(continued butting up\nagainst mantis has made me philosophical).\"\n\n(I hope that shows up okay onscreen, I'm on vacation\nand writing via yahoo mail).\n\nIf Typhon was just sending out humans to the nearest\ninhabitable (colonizable) planet(s) to find some new\nplace to live, and that place happened to be teaming\nwith vampiric inhumi, then Quetzal was either (a) a\nstowaway from Typhon's planet and there had already\nbeen Earth/Green commutes, or (b) a recent addition to\nthe Whorl who came in from outside, which seems absurd\nsince he's been the Prolocutor for decades. \n\nThe dilemma of (a) Quetzal is on the Whorl + (b) the \nWhorl is bound for the inhumi planet + (c) the Whorl\nwas built by Typhon/Pas seems like it can only resolve\nwith Typhon having built the Whorl to sell to the\ninhumi, who perhaps were running out of food. Again,\nyou could suppose that Quetzal just redirected the\nWhorl toward his homeworld, but his very existance on\nthe Whorl implies that the inhumi were somehow\ninvolved in its origins.\n\nI won't get into the complicated \"knot\" of Pas vs. his\nChildren vs. the Prolocutor unless and until people\nshow interest in the Typhon/Inhumi complicity\npossibilities - i.e. a human Q would have tried to\nprevent theophanies because he feared a breakdown in\npower or even a revolution once the people of Viron\nheard about the inability to find the new calde,\nfigured out that they were being ruled illegally, plus\nhearing of Pas' \"death\" would be disheartening to say\nthe least. An inhumi Quetzal however, is primarily\nmotivated by getting the Cargo to Green. He therefore\nrequires that the Plan of Pas be followed. So don't\nlet anyone know Pas is dead lest they get other ideas\nin their heads and start listening to the other gods.\nThen again, it seemed that Tartaros was equally bent\non seeing it through. Oops, I get I did get into it\nafter all.\n\nMaybe Tyhon himself was part of a legion of inhumi\nscouts sent out millenia ago to conquer distant\nplanets, form empires and ship sustainable\n\"agriculture\" back to Green. That would be quite an\nundertaking.\n\nSorry if these thoughts are less than cohesive. I'm\nstill trembling from that incredible finish. " } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Andre-Driussi", "address": "mantis at sirius.com" }, "date": "1999-07-01T16:04:53+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Typhon's Mission", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Hello there Josh Smith, and welcome aboard!\n\nFWIW (and that ain't much, since the new trilogy is about to begin and it\nwill probably give some new information), I think that:\n\n1) Typhon launched the ship to make a colony by, of, and for Typhon (the\nbright side of Typhon's egomania is the refusal to be pizza boy to a planet\nof vampire ).\n\n2) The ship has been orbiting the target star for decades--maybe even 100\nor 200 years.\n\n3) Quetzal came onboard the ship =after= it arrived in his native star\nsystem, not before. (And he arrived by swimming through space--long ago,\non the _Queen Mary_, Gene Wolfe said some things to me that made it seem\nlikely that the inhumi [I'm forgetting my conjugation here] actually swim\nthrough space, like the butterfly woman of TBOTNS, or like many of\nLovecraft's critters.) If the ship has been orbiting for 100 years (the\nend of Pas's planned time was one hundred years ago [II, p. 235]) then this\ngives plenty of time for Q to come aboard and have his long career; if it\nhas only been orbiting for decades, then there are problems.\n\n=mantis=\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1999-07-02T10:43:26+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Typhon's Mission", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "One problem with the cargo=cattle idea:\n\nEven if you imagine that the cargo are being sent to set up a \"real\" \ncolony which will then be harvested in a \"sustainable\" manner by the\ninhumani, you have the problem of why Typhon would go with them. Pas and\nhis children seem to be set up to take on bodies via posession (probably\nthose special embryos) upon arrival and rule. But I can't imagine Typhon\nbeing content to rule someone else's cattle.\n\nMaybe the inhumani *think* they're getting a shipment of cattle, but\nTyphon sent a conquering army instead! All those robot soldiers sure\naren't very edible. \n\nAlso, I don't think Tartaros is helping with the disembarkment effort\nbecause he's following the plan of Pas or because he wants to deliver\ncargo to the inhumani. I think he just knows that the Whorl is running\ndown and if they stay they're all gonna die.\n\n-Rostrum\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }