Subject: (whorl) RE: Digest whorl.v011.n027

From: Roberson, John <robersonj at bek.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:10:21 +0000

> ----------
> 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? 
> 
	My thoughts on this go as follows: 

	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.

	-Ram 

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---

From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:33:34 +0000

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. 

I read it, but I didn't come away with the same understanding that Robert
and mantis did. I need to re-read it in light of their discussion. 

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

Oh, you wicked woman. 

-- 
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com

---

From: akt <akt at attglobal.net>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:13:14 +0000

Said William:

> 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.

Not so; we'd all been counting eyes, but you got there first.

Mr. Borski:

> 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.

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.

> 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.
The
> 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?
If
> 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!

Oh, don't forget me, Robert! It's my favorite Position, and I think with
William that your tortured explanations are completely *unnecessary.*
The 8-legged thingie is Babbie, whom Mucor has sent to be Horn's
companion and guardian. That's why he jumps and swims. Why do you need
to drag Neighbors or some anonymous critter into what seems perfectly
obvious? It's the hus, the whole hus, nothing but the hus.

-alga

---

From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:41:39 +0000

>story), done that and skedaddled.

Although I think we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop and
reveal what all the Scylla foreshadowing in Short Sun so far is about.
But if it turns out to be Oreb, I'll be (right now I think)
unpleasantly surprised.

--
"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

---

From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 23:02:39 +0000

At 6:13 PM -0400 8/24/00, alga <akt at attglobal.net> wrote:
>Oh, don't forget me, Robert! It's my favorite Position [...]

And you hold it much more gracefully than ever I could, alga. <g>

-- 
William Ansley

---

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2000 14:47:17 +0000

> that would revert them back to beasts would be "killing" their human-like

And if humans offered themselves knowing that it would result in the
inhumi losing their intelligence, they would not be acting in the spirit
of not harming others, so the inhumi would not imbibe this spirit, so
they wouldn't stop feeding on humans, so they wouldn't lose their
intelligence, so the self-sacrificing humans wouldn't be harming them,
so...

--Adam