{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/730", "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": 730, "subject": "Horn as Silk", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1999-11-16T20:09:57+00:00", "last": "1999-11-24T00:58:55+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice Turner", "address": "akt at attglobal.net" }, "date": "1999-11-16T20:09:57+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Re: Horn as Silk", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Hi John Roberson, and welcome,\n\nThanks for pitching right in. My take on your two points:\n\nI. I don't detect a hint of Pas (as I see Pas, or as we all saw him as\nTyphon) in the \"voice\" of Horn. Of course we first met Silk filtered through\nHorn, but this narration is recognizably similar to that amalgam. Horn tried\nhard to do Silk justice and now that they really *are* an amalgam it's\nshiftier but not nearly as strange as a Pas addition would make it. So I\nthink not, though it's an interesting idea. Also, the very title of the\nthird book indicates to me that we really will be going back to the Whorl\n(hooray, we'll see what happens with those super-tall asses!)\n\n2. There have been a lot of guesses about \"the secret of the inhumi,\" and\nthe front-runner for a while was that it was simply that they took on (or\ncould take on) aspects of the prey along with the blood; when they\nencountered a sentient race for the first time, it revolutionized them.\nAnother conjecture has to do with their obviously being able to survive a\nlong time without sustenance in a mummified state. But later thinking is\nthat it's more complicated than that--it's a secret that if known could\ndestroy them--and that Wolfe just hasn't given it to us even in clue form\nyet.\n\nArguments invited.\n\n-alga\n\n\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Kevin J. Maroney", "address": "kmaroney at crossover.com" }, "date": "1999-11-16T20:27:09+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Re: Horn as Silk", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 08:09 PM 11/16/99 -0500, alga wrote:\nBut later thinking is\nthat it's more complicated than that--it's a secret that if known could\ndestroy them--and that Wolfe just hasn't given it to us even in clue form\nyet." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I like the later observation (I'm pretty sure it was made here) to the\neffect that: If the inhumi only gain sentience from feeding on sentient\nprey, the humans could defeat them by methodically protecting each other\nfrom the inhumi during conjunction. But human divisiveness keeps them from\nprotecting each other completely, and thus some humans fall, making the\ninhumi stronger. \n\nBut I agree that Wolfe almost certainly has something more subtle and\nclever in mind. \n\nWombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com\nKitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction\nhttp://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Jim Jordan", "address": "jbjordan at gnt.net" }, "date": "1999-11-24T00:58:55+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Re: Horn as Silk", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 08:09 PM 11/16/99 -0500, Slimina of the Green Goo wrote:\n\n2. There have been a lot of guesses about \"the secret of the inhumi,\" and\nthe front-runner for a while was that it was simply that they took on (or\ncould take on) aspects of the prey along with the blood; when they\nencountered a sentient race for the first time, it revolutionized them.\nAnother conjecture has to do with their obviously being able to survive a\nlong time without sustenance in a mummified state. But later thinking is\nthat it's more complicated than that--it's a secret that if known could\ndestroy them--and that Wolfe just hasn't given it to us even in clue form\nyet.\n\nArguments invited." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It's Rat Time, Slimina!\n\nTo begin with, courtesy of Kieran:\n\nHorn: \"If only we cared about each other sufficiently. If only all of us\nloved all the others enough, they would go back to [mindless beasts]. We\nwould still think them horrible creatures, and they would still be\ndangerous, as the crocodiles in this lower river water are. But they would\nbe no worse.\"\nEvensong: \"That is the secret, what you said?\"\nHorn: \"No, of course not.\" [p.375]\n\nSo, let's invert that. The inhumi take on our characteristics. We are not\nvery nice people: enslaving others, raping wimmin, etc. What if we become\ngood, \"Green Man\" types, like the forerunners of Blue? What would the\ninhumi become then? Good guys! Hey, is that why old Quetzal becomes a good\nguy, because of hanging around and being near Silk?\n\tInhumi are animals, \"underpeople\" of Cordo Smith, but of a different sort.\nTheir salvation depends on and proceeds from human salvation.\n\tMy guess. It think the clews are there, but I may be taking them wrongly.\n\nSlavering Nutria of the Dripping Jowl\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }