Subject: (whorl) Identify Confusion and More

From: David Lebling <david_lebling at avid.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 10:51:08 +0000

mantis mentioned "chem-bio" identity confusion...  Which reminds me of another
Wolfe trademark, a more generalized identity confusion (Sev/Thecla being one of
the more prominent ones, but Marsch/VRT comes to mind as well).

Check out the end of _Blue_ for another, as we get confused between Horn and
Babbie, not to mention a touch of Silk.  I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot
more on this one later in the trilogy.  As with Oreb, there is a lot more to
Babbie than meets the eye.

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* *
alga and mantis both commented on the multi-armed Neighbors.  Most of the native
mammals (or is that "mammals") on Blue have eight legs, I think.  Babbie is the
prototype for this, as we meet him first.  But the "elephants" aren't elephants
(two trunks, for example), the "horses" aren't horses (not completely sure about
this one), and so on.  Cows seem to be cows, at least, but even that I wouldn't
wager on.  I don't think the wallowers ("hippos" with horns?) or the breakbull
("elk"?) ever have their number of limbs specified, but I'd bet it's also eight.
It is interesting that so many Blue "mammals" have horns, though.

Seawrack, as mantis opines, is almost certainly a modified (gills, Siren
abilities, etc.) human born on Blue.  She has memories of her real mother, after
all.  Seawrack deserves a whole essay of her own, of course.  Just to start,
there's her strange relationship with the Mother, and the equally strange one
with Horn.  Does she actually love either?  There's her obvious guilt about her
sirenian (a word which has the wrong meaning, but fits somehow) seduction of
Horn, which she was forced into by Horn at the instigation of Krait. Yikes!
Given that they are in some bizarre way a family (or pose as one, anyway), they
could get on Jerry Springer in a minute!

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* *
alga, are you going to follow up on your tantalizing comment about racism?

 *
* *
Does anyone know the publication schedule for the remaining two volumes?  I
thought we had had a post on that subject, but I couldn't find it in the
archives.

     -- Dave Lebling
     (aka vizcacha)

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