{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/754",
    "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": 754,
    "subject": "Inhumi secret and \"which Silk?\"",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-01-20T12:39:38+00:00",
    "last": "2000-01-20T12:39:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0010-0224@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "David Wells",
        "address": "adw at ovum.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-01-20T12:39:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Inhumi secret and \"which Silk?\"",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "a) I agree with several posters that the \"you are what you eat\" theory is by\nfar the most morally/philosophically interesting candidate for the inhumi\nsecret, and also the most consistent with what I would expect from Wolfe.\nBut it doesn't seem to fit with Horn's description of the secret, as has\nalso been pointed out. (And let's assume that this isn't just because Horn\nis far from the brightest bulb in the chandelier, and is also a somewhat\nincoherent and inconsistent narrator).\nA much more boring variation, but one which might fit the known facts\nbetter, is a bit more physical/literal. Suppose that it's _particular\nchemicals_ - e.g. adrenaline - which make the inhumi more\nintelligent/humanlike. So if the humans organise themselves to stay a bit\ncalmer and be a little less afraid of the inhumi, the latter would become\ngradually less intelligent (and maybe eventually even our heroic narrator\nwould be able to outsmart them ;-).\nI know this sounds like an old Star Trek script, and I rather hope it's\n_not_ the secret, but it seems to work a little better with respect to\nHorn's description of the secret. It allows the humans to continue to be\nintrinsically sinful creatures, but encourages them to try not to _act out_\ntheir sins, because this would fill their bloodstreams with\ninhumi-stimulating chemicals. Hmmm...\n\nb) How many Silks? I've always liked the much-debated theory that the\n\"special embryos\" of which Silk is one (and Hyacinth is another? My memory\nfails me on this point) were designed as receptacles for the Mainframe Gods\nto download into as part of the Plan of Pas. (The main sticking point being\nwhether Mainframe is required to engineer/maintain a theophany). If the\nembryos are designed for this, you would expect there to be a degree of\nredundancy. So maybe there's more than one Silk running around on the Whorl\nand/or on Green/Blue? There's no evidence for this that I can recall, but it\nseems an interesting possibility.\nMaybe there's an alternate reading of BOTLS in which different \"Silks\" take\npart in different parts of the story without Horn noticing :-).\n\nauld newt\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}