{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/902", "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": 902, "subject": "Scyllas I, II, III", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2000-08-04T13:08:01+00:00", "last": "2000-08-07T13:19:48+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Borski", "address": "rborski at charter.net" }, "date": "2000-08-04T13:08:01+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Scyllas I, II, III", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Ian Smith having written:\n\n\n\n\n\nScylla I is the original biological issue of Typhon and Echidna, or as Wolfe\ndescribes her, \"a sea monster of the Red Sun Whorl.\" (i.e., Urth)\n\nScylla II is her scanned counterpart, the computerized goddess of the Long\nSun series. Scylla I, we may assume, has been left behind on Urth just as\nPas has left Typhon-Piaton back in his mountaintop citadel and she may have\nentered into an allegiance with Abaia & the Other Dark Lords, who arrive\nafter Typhon's departure.\n\nScylla III, I'm proposing, is Scylla II made flesh again--that is to say,\nrecarnified in one of the special bodies (possibly chems?) Pas has prepared\nfor their eventual download once the Whorl reaches its destination. It's\nbeen surmised that Silk has been engineered to host Pas; surely counterparts\nexist for his wife and children. As for why Scylla III--the Mother--doesn't\nannounce her presence, she may be hiding from restored Pas, who, along with\nher mother and siblings, she's attempted to kill; there may as well be a\nstruggle for power among the other gods and goddesses of Long Sun; after\nall, they are the children, consorts and friends of ruthless Typhon.\n\nHaving Scylla be the Mother resolves another matter. Scylla means \"she who\nrends,\" so perhaps she is the true agent of Seawrack's armlessness rather\nthan Babbie. (I've learned to be skeptical of all unwitnessed offstage\nWolfean events that are reconstructed by untrustworthy narrators.) As for\nwhy the Mother would mutilate Seawrack, perhaps she's worried that Horn,\nlike Odysseus, will be able to resist the siren's charms, and is therefore\nhoping to appeal to his sense of pity. \"Poor little crippled mermaid girl,\nthere's no way I can cast you out of my boat now,\" etc., etc.\n\nAnd while I'm speaking of Seawrack, isn't it possible she's one of the\nsuper-talents engineered by Pas? Scylla might easily have access to a secret\ncache of them, and this would help solve the puzzle behind Mucor's long\nswims out to her island, as well as the mysterious three fish that appear\nwhen Horn goes down to the rock; both being uberfolk, they've bonded and\neach is helping the other.\n\nAnd lastly, from events presented in Wolfe's short tale of the Whorl, \"The\nNight Chough,\" there's evidence that there may be a piece of Scylla in Oreb,\njust as there was a piece of Pas in Jerboa--that or she's riding him the\nsame way human beings and chems get ridden by Echidna and her brood.\n\nRobert Borski\n\n\n\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Fernando Q. Gouvea", "address": "fqgouvea at colby.edu" }, "date": "2000-08-07T13:19:48+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) Scyllas I, II, III", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "**** On Fri, 4 Aug 2000 13:08:01 -0500, \"Robert Borski\" said:\n\nRobert> Scylla III, I'm proposing, is Scylla II made flesh again--that is\nRobert> to say, recarnified in one of the special bodies (possibly chems?)\nRobert> Pas has prepared for their eventual download once the Whorl reaches\nRobert> its destination. It's been surmised that Silk has been engineered\nRobert> to host Pas; surely counterparts exist for his wife and\nRobert> children. As for why Scylla III--the Mother--doesn't announce her\nRobert> presence, she may be hiding from restored Pas, who, along with her\nRobert> mother and siblings, she's attempted to kill; there may as well be\nRobert> a struggle for power among the other gods and goddesses of Long\nRobert> Sun; after all, they are the children, consorts and friends of\nRobert> ruthless Typhon.\n\nMy problem with this is that when Horn mentions the Mother to the Neighbors\n(in OBW, page 269), they say \"that is one of her names\". This suggests that\nshe was on Blue before the Whorl arrived. (Only suggests, of course,\nthere's certainly lots of ways to \"spin\" the Neighbors' response.)\n\nFernando" }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "Fernando Q. Gouvea \nDepartment of Mathematics Editor, FOCUS and MAA Online\nColby College Mathematical Association of America\nWaterville, ME 04901 http://www.maa.org\nfqgouvea at colby.edu \n==========================================================\n\nA \"No\" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a\n\"Yes\" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.\n -- Mahatma Ghandi\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }