Subject: (whorl) Mucor & Babbie & Seawrack

From: David_Lebling <david_lebling at avid.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 17:16:30 +0000

mantis wrote:
<<Then, didn't Horn decide that the huss had =not= struck whatever it was,
but only licked up the blood after?>>

I thought what he decided was that Babbie hadn't _eaten_ whatever had come
aboard; there would have been more leftover bits, as with the fish(?) he was
eating when Horn came to that conclusion.

<<So, okay--huss nipped her arm off, just below the shoulder.  She grendeled
it back beneath the wine dark sea.>>

I think it's more likely that Babbie mangled her arm badly enough that it had to
be amputated, than that it was bitten clean off a la Grendel.  The description
of the treated wound is oddly like that of Triskele's amputated leg in _Shadow_.
No doubt the Mother could do this.

I doubt we know everything of interest about Seawrack yet, though I wonder when
we will learn more, she having been left behind.  But then, Babbie seems to be
back (in some form) at the end of this volume, so there is hope.  Horn's
ruminations as to the Mother's purpose in sending (forcing) Seawrack to come to
Horn are provocative, especially because they seem to just lie there.  I thought
initially that the reason was she wanted to get Seawrack to the _Whorl_. More on
this in future volumes, I suspect.

<<(Or is it more a case of being directed by Mucor, because she doesn't like
Seawrack?)>>

Wow! That hadn't occurred to me as a possibility, but thinking about it, the
idea of Babbie as a stalking hus, er, horse for Mucor is too good to reject out
of hand.

This suggestion reminds me of the interesting exchange when Sinew returns. Horn
says that Seawrack is like Mucor, and her response gives a hint that she has
some of the same powers.

     -- Dave Lebling
     (aka vizcacha)

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request at lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth at lists.best.com