No spoilers for after what Alga's read, btw.
The undine theory has already been offered up, but nobody has commented on it--I suggested it, so I guess I can't say more than "it seems possible"-- or perhaps Mother is more like Erebus or Abaia, an undine-maker (or Mother).
Horn seems vastly more obtuse about Sinew than about most other people (although his understanding of Seawrack is also, to say the least, flawed).
And I will bite on the racist issue--elaborate, if you will.
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department 8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce
*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.