{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/819", "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": 819, "subject": "These are the jokes, pt. 2; more inhumi mysteries", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2000-04-13T09:20:34+00:00", "last": "2000-04-17T12:32:48+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Adam Stephanides", "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2000-04-13T09:20:34+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) These are the jokes, pt. 2; more inhumi mysteries", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "There is very little humor in OBW (a trait it shares with most of\nWolfe's books), but a while ago Kieran Cleary posted one humorous bit. \nHere are two more.\n\n1) On p. 126 Horn refers to the burials alive of inhumi practiced in\nGaon as \"inhumations.\" I don't know whether this is an actual word\nmeaning \"burials alive\" or a coinage by Wolfe on analogy with\n\"exhumation.\" Either way it's a pun, if a grim one.\n\n2) Recalling his speculations about what had gotten on board the boat\nand been wounded by Babbie, Horn tells us: \"For a moment I thought of\nthe woman I had shot, swimming league upon league after our boat, intent\nupon revenge. If I were spinning a fireside tale for children here, no\ndoubt it would be so; but I am recounting sober fact, and I knew that\nany such thing was utterly impossible.\" (136) In \"sober fact,\" of\ncourse, it turns out to have been a beautiful naked woman with gills,\nliving under the sea with a sea-goddess who is training her as a siren. \nThis is a joke by Wolfe, on both himself and Horn, and a good one.\n\nThe passage on p. 126 in which \"inhumations\" are mentioned is a cryptic\none, in more ways than one. First, Horn ponders: \"Would it be effective\nfor us to dig up one of the recent inhumations and release him to warn\nthe others?\" Warn the others of what? Of Horn's threat to reveal\nKrait's secret, presumably. But what does Horn hope to accomplish by\nthis? We have no clue (this is before the war with Han has even\nbegun). Then Horn briefly speculates that the inhumi may not be\n\"natural creatures,\" but instead may have been created by the\nNeighbors! What does Horn know about the inhumi, or the Neighbors, that\nleads him to entertain this possiblity even briefly?\n\n--Adam\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mark millman", "address": "millman at us.ncipher.com" }, "date": "2000-04-13T15:01:53+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) These are the jokes, pt. 2; more inhumi mysteries", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 09:20 am -0700 on Thursday 13 April 2000, Adam Stephanides \n wrote:\nThere is very little humor in OBW (a trait it shares with most of\nWolfe's books), but a while ago Kieran Cleary posted one hu-\nmorous bit. Here are two more.\n\n1) On p. 126 Horn refers to the burials alive of inhumi practiced \nin Gaon as \"inhumations.\" I don't know whether this is an actual \nword meaning \"burials alive\" or a coinage by Wolfe on analogy \nwith \"exhumation.\" Either way it's a pun, if a grim one." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It is a grim pun, but it may not be quite as bad as Adam suggests. \n\"Inhumation\" means \"a burial\", but doesn't imply that it's a living \nburial. Merriam-Webster on-line (at http://www.m-w.com) gives:\n\n Main Entry: in·hume\n Pronunciation: in-'hyüm\n Function: transitive verb\n Inflected Form(s): in·humed; in·hum·ing\n Etymology: probably from French inhumer, from Medieval \n Latin inhumare, from Latin in- + humus earth -- more at \n HUMBLE\n Date: 1604\n : BURY, INTER\n - in·hu·ma·tion /\"in-hyü-'mA-sh&n/ noun\n\nand the 1913 _Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary_ (at \nhttp://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/webster.form.html)\nhas:\n\n Inhumation (Page: 764)\n In`hu*ma\"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. inhumation.] \n 1. The act of inhuming or burying; interment. \n 2. (Old Chem.) The act of burying vessels in warm earth in \n order to expose their contents to a steady moderate heat; \n the state of being thus exposed. \n 3. (Med.) Arenation.\n\nNeither dictionary ascribes \"inhumation\" a connotation of live burial, \nand I don't recall ever seeing it used that way." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "2) [snipped, sorry]\n\nThe passage on p. 126 in which \"inhumations\" are mentioned is a \ncryptic one, in more ways than one. First, Horn ponders: \"Would \nit be effective for us to dig up one of the recent inhumations and \nrelease him to warn the others?\" Warn the others of what? Of \nHorn's threat to reveal Krait's secret, presumably. But what does \nHorn hope to accomplish by this? We have no clue (this is before \nthe war with Han has even begun). " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I'd always thought that the inhumu released from his grave would warn\nthe others of the harsh treatment they'd face in Gaon. No doubt an in-\nhumu forewarned could avoid capture and burial, but Horn likely hopes \nthat at least some inhumi will avoid Gaon so as not to face such risks. I\ndon't think that Krait's secret comes into play here." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Then Horn briefly speculates that the inhumi may not be \"natural \ncreatures,\" but instead may have been created by the Neighbors! \nWhat does Horn know about the inhumi, or the Neighbors, that \nleads him to entertain this possiblity even briefly?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I suspect that we won't find this out until we read _In Green's Jungles_.\n\nNacre\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": "2000-04-17T12:32:48+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) These are the jokes, pt. 2; more inhumi mysteries", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "another joke in OBW:\n\nWhen one of the sailors from Dorp (the community with a Dutch-type \nfeel to it) meets Horn and Seawrack, he addresses Seawrack as \n\"mer-frau\" (ie sea-lady). It's a sort of joke because what he actually \nsays, rather than what Horn thinks he says, is presumably the identical \nsounding \"mevrouw\" which is simply a polite Dutch way of addressing a \nwoman.\n\nNot hilarious, but worth a mention I thought...\n\nAl\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }