{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/643",
    "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": 643,
    "subject": "\"Blood Drinkers of Planet Blue\"",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-09-29T09:31:10+00:00",
    "last": "1999-09-29T09:31:10+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0040@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David_Lebling",
        "address": "david_lebling at avid.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-09-29T09:31:10+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) \"Blood Drinkers of Planet Blue\"",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "(That's the Ace Double reprint of _On Blue's Waters_, of course.  Blurb: \"They\ncrossed the stars to drink human blood, but he loved one like a son!\" The cover\nillustration I'll leave to your imagination. The flip side, of course, is\nsomething by Kenneth Bulmer.)\n\n *\n* *\n\nIn a message dated 9/28/99 4:42:03 PM, Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu writes:\n\n<<  I think I have a guess at the secret of the inhumi, but there's\nprobably some startling aspect I haven't considered--it seems obvious\n that they only are intelligent because they drink the blood of intelligent\ncreatures.>>\n\nThe relevant passages that I found most intriguing come near the end of the\nbook, where Horn says something on the order of \"If we would only help each\nother, the inhumi couldn't harm us.\" The other is by Krait, who says that if\nhumans knew the secret they could make the inhumi into animals, or make them be\nanimals again. (My copy isn't with me, so bear with me).\n\nMy speculations have been along the same lines as Alex's, but these comments\nseem a stumbling block. The secret must be something humans could act on to\nreturn the inhumi to an animal state, or otherwise use to protect themselves.\n\nThat being said, I still think the guess isn't far from the truth, I just don't\nknow what direction to go to find it.\n\nThe depiction of the relationship of inhumi to humans is one of many wonderful\nthings in a wonderful book. For example, soon after we meet him, Krait says \"You\nare our cattle.\" As the book progresses, we slowly remember that there's more to\nbeing cattle than hamburger.\n\n *\n* *\n\nObviously Gaon is India (in the sense that Viron is South America and\nTriviguante is Iraq or Persia) and Han is China.  What about the other towns?\nWijzer is apparently from the same town as Yoda...\n\n *\n* *\n\nIn a previous post I mentioned some elucidated mysteries. There is, for example,\nMarble's remark re Maytera Rose, that \"I took parts of her processor.\"  Wolfe\nhas a way of dropping these things into an otherwise normal conversation, and\nonly after a moment do you do the double-take and realize what he is talking\nabout. (Compare _Hannibal_.)\n\nWhen is _Green_ scheduled for? Tell me it's next week, please!\n\n     Dave Lebling\n     (aka vizcacha)\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}