{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/759", "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": 759, "subject": "those darned ambiguities", "messages": 5, "voices": 5, "first": "2000-01-20T20:56:50+00:00", "last": "2000-01-28T18:07:08+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "shannon wilde", "address": "swilde_99 at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2000-01-20T20:56:50+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Re: those darned ambiguities", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Mssr. Newt, my memory fails also as to whether\nHyacinth was an engineered embryo, though Silk and\nChenille sure were. Anyone? How about a few characters\nnot much speculated on, or even, eek, _all_ the, uh\nhuman Whorl denizens? (just spitballin here...)\n\nAnd, yes, I too wondered about the deal w/Mucor and\nthose compliant fish. Maybe she grabbed them by their\npoor li'l ganglia and popped them on out, but perhaps\nshe had already been in contact w/Seawrack or even the\nfearsome(?)Mother, and all this was some foreshadowing\nof the shadowy PTB of Blue. No Doubt this will all\nbecome crystal (using that advisedly ;) in upcoming\nepisodes and meticulous dissection >g<. Hoo boy.\nHappy eclipse, everyone, and best fishes-S." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Nicholas Gevers", "address": "vermoulian at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2000-01-20T21:30:58+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Re: those darned ambiguities", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "--- shannon wilde wrote:\nMssr. Newt, my memory fails also as to whether\nHyacinth was an engineered embryo, though Silk and\nChenille sure were. Anyone? How about a few\ncharacters\nnot much speculated on, or even, eek, _all_ the, uh\nhuman Whorl denizens? (just spitballin here...)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The only character in LONG SUN other than Silk who is\nclearly a grown special embryo is Mucor (thus her\nadoption by Blood, and her special powers). Chenille\nwas the natural daughter of Calde Tussah." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alex David Groce", "address": "alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu" }, "date": "2000-01-21T12:16:23+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Re: those darned ambiguities", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I also thought it was just Mucor possessing the fish at first--although\nHorn, who knows about Mucor, ignores this possibility, and there are the\nmysterious references to someone else on the island. Babbie, Mother,\nand Seawrack have all been proposed, and I think a Neighbor is another\npossibility (the weird hints with Remora, etc.)\n\nMAYBE it was just Mucor (or have we been told she can only possess humans?)\nbut something fishy is definitely going on in this bit. Pun intended.\n\n\n\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\" John 8:32" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)\nPh.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department\n8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066\nhttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alastair Reynolds", "address": "areynold at estsa2.estec.esa.nl" }, "date": "2000-01-21T18:02:45+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Re: those darned ambiguities", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Alex:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "MAYBE it was just Mucor (or have we been told she can only possess humans?)\nbut something fishy is definitely going on in this bit. Pun intended." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "How does Mucor's possession ability work? Maybe I missed something\n(very likely) but it seems hard to rationalise her talent with an\nunderlying SF-nal explanation, in the usual Wolfe manner. I probably\nneed to re-read TBOTLS...\n\nI'm about a third of the way through OBW and enjoying it immensely.\nVery puzzled by Seawrack, and (as was noted here by other readers),\nHorn's nonchalant attitude to her missing arm. Oh well...I'm sure it\nwill all become clear in the end...not!\n\nAl\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Sheila Herndon", "address": "skherndon at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2000-01-28T18:07:08+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Re: those darned ambiguities", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "--- whorl-errors at lists.best.com wrote:\nFrom: Alastair Reynolds\nHow does Mucor's possession ability work? Maybe I\nmissed something\n(very likely) but it seems hard to rationalise her\ntalent with an\nunderlying SF-nal explanation, in the usual Wolfe\nmanner. I probably\nneed to re-read TBOTLS..." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "\n\nAt WindyCon, GW mentioned at one of his panels\nthat He purposefully put a ghost into the middle\nof one of his novels so that the reader would\nnot expect only science fiction from the novel.\n(The panel was about mixing the genres).\n\nSo perhaps he is mixing sf and the supernatural.\n\nBut I don't really know, and just wanted to throw\nthat out there to see what other people think.\n\nWhen I first read TBLN I thought the Outsider\ngod was supernatural, and the others were\ntechnological, but that is probably naive.\n\n\n...About the Inhumuni secret. I agree with\nwhoever said that the love-thy-neighbor angle\ndoesn't seem to be a good candidate because of\nthe impossibility of implementation. If something\nwere impossible to implement, then I don't think\nthey would consider it a threat. \n\nBut the love-thy-neighbor theory is still\nintriguing and something has to be there. All of\nthe technologically oriented ideas so far seem\nhokey.\n\nOne offshoot of the love idea is to love the\ninhumuni. Maybe this is what saves Horn. Krait\ndrinks his blood, and then Horn loves him. Most\npeople wouldn't. Maybe that's the secret. So it's\na bigger version of love-thy-neighbor (what *is*\nthy neighbor).\n\n*Except* that, again we have the implementation\nproblem (even if maybe it isn't so difficult, \npeople can protect themselves and it doesn't depend\non the actions of other people), and if blood taking\nis required, what protection is there against\ninhumuni who would kill their first time victom\noutright?\n\n\n\nsh" } ] } ] }