Digest whorl.v011.n027

---------- From: whorl-errors at lists.best.com[SMTP:whorl-errors at lists.best.com] Reply To: whorl at lists.best.com Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2000 9:22 AM To: whorl at lists.best.com Subject: Digest whorl.v011.n027

Spectacled Bear wrote: The Secret: The speculations here about the secret of the inhumi being to do with willing sacrifice are very interesting, but don't address Horn's assertion that it could be used to reduce the inhumi to mindless animals, not better but not worse than crocodiles. And how does that fit in with the general theme that we ought to be nice to them?

At 06:13 PM 8/24/00 -0400, alga wrote: This may well be true in "The Night Chough," which only you and mantis seem to have read.

It's the hus, the whole hus, nothing but the hus.

Of course I eventually realized that the reason no one else had mentioned this idea before me was that everyone else had figured it out already and thought is was too obvious to mention.

Note the very last line from "The Night Chough" that I quote. In the original text the word "Scylla" is italicized. But it's what follows that's important. "That was the bird. And not the bird." In other words, Oreb is saying "Scylla," but it's actually Scylla (and not the bird) that's providing the information. My argument: that if you're a god and you're using a bird for your mouthpiece, you're riding it.

Mr. Ansley then writing: <It is completely certain to me that an eight-legged creature one-third(?) the height of a man will look more like a cluster of (shorter than a man) boys or two men on their hands and knees (short - because doubled over - and with eight leg-like - because of position - limbs) than a Neighbor, who is as tall as or taller than a man and has only four leg-like limbs (and, of course, four arm-like ones).> All right, just for the sake of argument, let's say you're right here.

8-legged thingie is merely some indigenous, but anonymous, member of Blue's faunal kingdom. What possesses it to jump from the cliff to the sea?

directed by Mucor, what has she done so? In other words what are we make of this leap in a broader context? Also: when last seen, the eight-legged thingie has plunged into the water and disappeared very near to Horn's boat. Just coincidentally, when Babbie first appears upon the scene some few hundred words later, it's also in the water very near to the boat. I just think the simplest most elegant solution is to assume both are one and the same. If I'm wrong, I still need to understand the 8-legged beastie's motivation for jumping--possibly even to its death, since according to you (or at least I'm inferring this) we never see it again. Nice to have you back in the Devil's Advocate Position, William!

This may well be true in "The Night Chough," which only you and mantis seem to have read. But there's not a tweak of evidence for it in the five books we have all read. Scylla has apparently been there (for the story), done that and skedaddled.

At 6:13 PM -0400 8/24/00, alga <akt at attglobal.net> wrote: > Nice to have you back in the Devil's Advocate Position, William! Oh, don't forget me, Robert! It's my favorite Position [...]

Roberson, John wrote: If humans offer themselves willingly to the inhumu, who then develop something of their soul/spirit of not harming others and being self-sacrificing, then those inhumu will quit feeding on other humans. Feeding from only non-sentient animals, they would lose their sentience and revert to blood-sucking croc vermin. While this would get rid of the inhumu problem, it would be somewhat contrary to Incanto's ethical stance, since he believes the inhumu spirits to be developing "souls" and to do something that would revert them back to beasts would be "killing" their human-like spirits.