{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/874", "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": 874, "subject": "The secret of the inhumi [SPOILERS for IGJ]", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2000-07-25T09:38:58+00:00", "last": "2000-07-25T09:57:03+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Adam Stephanides", "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2000-07-25T09:38:58+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) The secret of the inhumi [SPOILERS for IGJ]", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Josh Levitan wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Alex David Groce wrote:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "1. The inhumi's secret (maybe) becomes a little clearer, in some\naspects: Krait's _mother_ drank from Sinew, and I believe it may be\nthat when the inhumi spawn their children take their spirit (in some\nsense) from (a particular, I assume) victim of the parent." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I don't think that's the case. " }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't think Alex's theory is the secret either, although it may be\ntrue. I don't see why the inhumi would see Alex's theory as more of a\nweapon against themselves than the fact that they draw their nature from\nwhat they feed on, which Krait told Horn without demanding he take a vow\nof secrecy. (82)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I do think it has become a bit clearer,\nalthough not crystal clear yet. And unfortunately, all evidence seems to\npoint to the \"Do Unto Others Theory\" as being extremely likely to being \"the\nsecret.\"" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I don't think so. As said above, Krait tells Horn freely that the\ninhumi take the nature of those they feed on, and Horn tells us,\nwhereas he remains coy about the secret. And \"Do Unto Others\" is a\nmerely a logical (if impractical) deduction from this, moreover one that\nHorn has explicitly stated. So neither of these are the secret.\n\nOn the other hand, when Hide responds to Horn's socratic questionin:\n\"'They really do make themselves just like we are....Only they couldn't\ndo it if they didn't have us to copy.'\" Horn replies \"'I'd scarcely\nhoped to take you this far without violating an oath, which I will not\ndo.'\" (351) This does suggest that the secret lies in this area (it\nalso suggests that Horn underestimates Hide's intelligence as much as he\ndoes Sinew's character).\n\nThere are some other clues as to the secret in IGJ that I've noticed.\n\n1. The inhumi believe that the secret is a weapon against them, but Horn\nbelieves it is \"a weapon too heavy for our [human's] hands.\" (125) \n\n2. The Neighbors knew the secret, but were themselves unable to \"wield\nit.\" (125) So \"wielding\" the secret can't mean depriving the inhumi of\nall intelligent blood for a period of time, since the Neighbors could\nhave done that by \"going away\" temporarily at any time before the humans\narrived.\n\n3. The secret, along with the inhumi's desire to absorb humans' natures,\nexplains why they drink blood. (82)\n\n4. The secret is somehow connected with \"what had happened almost twenty\nyears ago\" (presumably Krait's mother feeding on Sinew) (82).\n\n5. Krait feels he has to tell Horn the secret before he dies. (82)\n\nMaybe somebody else can put these clues into a pattern better than I\ncan.\n\n--Adam\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alex David Groce", "address": "alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu" }, "date": "2000-07-25T09:57:03+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) The secret of the inhumi [SPOILERS for IGJ]", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Preserving spoiler space (didn't on my last post, sorry)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 2, "text": "*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*\n*SPOILER SPACE*" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Adam said:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I don't think Alex's theory is the secret either, although it may be\ntrue. I don't see why the inhumi would see Alex's theory as more of a\nweapon against themselves than the fact that they draw their nature from\nwhat they feed on, which Krait told Horn without demanding he take a vow\nof secrecy. (82)" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Sorry if I gave the impression I think this is the secret. I don't, but I\nthink that your point 4:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "4. The secret is somehow connected with \"what had happened almost twenty\nyears ago\" (presumably Krait's mother feeding on Sinew) (82)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "is somehow crucial--I don't think we have enough to figure out the\nsecret, but I'm betting the mother feeding on Sinew is at the heart of\nthe explanation.\n\nPerhaps if we can put together all the chronology of the Neighbors\nrelationship with the inhumi that we have we can come up with\nsomething more specific." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\" John 8:32\n--\nAlex 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." } ] } ] }