The secret of the inhumi [SPOILERS for IGJ] The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 25 Jul 2000 https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/874 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. ============================================================================== Adam Stephanides — 25 Jul 2000, 09:38 > Josh Levitan wrote: > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > Alex David Groce wrote: > > 1. The inhumi's secret (maybe) becomes a little clearer, in some > > aspects: Krait's _mother_ drank from Sinew, and I believe it may be > > that when the inhumi spawn their children take their spirit (in some > > sense) from (a particular, I assume) victim of the parent. > I don't think that's the case. I don't think Alex's theory is the secret either, although it may be true. I don't see why the inhumi would see Alex's theory as more of a weapon against themselves than the fact that they draw their nature from what they feed on, which Krait told Horn without demanding he take a vow of secrecy. (82) > I do think it has become a bit clearer, > although not crystal clear yet. And unfortunately, all evidence seems to > point to the "Do Unto Others Theory" as being extremely likely to being "the > secret." I don't think so. As said above, Krait tells Horn freely that the inhumi take the nature of those they feed on, and Horn tells us, whereas he remains coy about the secret. And "Do Unto Others" is a merely a logical (if impractical) deduction from this, moreover one that Horn has explicitly stated. So neither of these are the secret. On the other hand, when Hide responds to Horn's socratic questionin: "'They really do make themselves just like we are....Only they couldn't do it if they didn't have us to copy.'" Horn replies "'I'd scarcely hoped to take you this far without violating an oath, which I will not do.'" (351) This does suggest that the secret lies in this area (it also suggests that Horn underestimates Hide's intelligence as much as he does Sinew's character). There are some other clues as to the secret in IGJ that I've noticed. 1. The inhumi believe that the secret is a weapon against them, but Horn believes it is "a weapon too heavy for our [human's] hands." (125) 2. The Neighbors knew the secret, but were themselves unable to "wield it." (125) So "wielding" the secret can't mean depriving the inhumi of all intelligent blood for a period of time, since the Neighbors could have done that by "going away" temporarily at any time before the humans arrived. 3. The secret, along with the inhumi's desire to absorb humans' natures, explains why they drink blood. (82) 4. The secret is somehow connected with "what had happened almost twenty years ago" (presumably Krait's mother feeding on Sinew) (82). 5. Krait feels he has to tell Horn the secret before he dies. (82) Maybe somebody else can put these clues into a pattern better than I can. --Adam *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alex David Groce — 25 Jul 2000, 09:57 follows, by subject match Adam Stephanides Preserving spoiler space (didn't on my last post, sorry) > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* > > *SPOILER SPACE* Adam said: > I don't think Alex's theory is the secret either, although it may be > true. I don't see why the inhumi would see Alex's theory as more of a > weapon against themselves than the fact that they draw their nature from > what they feed on, which Krait told Horn without demanding he take a vow > of secrecy. (82) Sorry if I gave the impression I think this is the secret. I don't, but I think that your point 4: > 4. The secret is somehow connected with "what had happened almost twenty > years ago" (presumably Krait's mother feeding on Sinew) (82). is somehow crucial--I don't think we have enough to figure out the secret, but I'm betting the mother feeding on Sinew is at the heart of the explanation. Perhaps if we can put together all the chronology of the Neighbors relationship with the inhumi that we have we can come up with something more specific. -- "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32 -- Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu) Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department 8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------