{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/978", "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": 978, "subject": "IGJ Fava's Second Story", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "2000-08-24T18:26:02+00:00", "last": "2000-08-25T14:48:43+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Kevin J. Maroney", "address": "kmaroney at ungames.com" }, "date": "2000-08-25T14:48:43+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) IGJ Fava's Second Story", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 06:26 PM 8/24/00 -0500, Endymion wrote:\nIt seems that just by observing a human the inhuma was able to shape itself\nas a human (although maybe a rough version of one) and talk. Unless all of\nthis ability came from its parent feeding off of humans previously? By\nfeeding on humans I would suspect the inhuma can then perfect its imitation." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This gives more support for my belief that the inhumi have some sort of\ntelepathy to enhance their predation, but it's weak support. We know that\nthey camouflage themselves as their prey; feeding on humans merely makes\nthe camouflage better. " }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": " Kevin Maroney | Unplugged Games \n kmaroney at ungames.com | (212) 777-1190\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Endymion9", "address": "endymion9 at mindspring.com" }, "date": "2000-08-24T18:26:02+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) IGJ Fava's Second Story", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Just reread this section and have some observations and questions.\n\nObservations:\nThe little inhuma started off it's life in an egg.\n\nThen emerged from the egg and found a swamp/pond.\n\nShe had claws.\n\nShe swam with fishes and fed on fishes.\n\"And every day they grew stronger and fewer, for the fish on which they fed,\nfed on them.\"\n\nBut there is no mention of assuming fish form. In fact after seeing\nIncanto's leader\n\"For a time, she ran behind him on all fours like a dog.\" So four clawed\nlegs? So does everything on Green have four legs? (Neighbors, inhuma) I\nsee no description of how many legs a grabber has. Many animals of Blue\nhave eight legs. Why the 4 legs vs. 8 legs difference in the two planets?\n\nJust by seeing Incanto's leader and not yet having fed on him she assumes\nhuman form.\n\"She stood up as he did, and toddled along behind him, leaving her baby\nfootprints in the mud.\"\n\nAnd is able to talk in the human tongue.\n\n\"The little girl whose adventures I have been recounting to you knew nothing\nof heroes and swords, ...\n\n...as the grabber was dead she overcame her natural shyness sufficiently to\nspeak to the leader who had killed it and saved her, offering her timid\nthanks and after some hesitation venturing to say that she thought his was\nthe best shape for everyone.\"\n\nIt's funny that Incanto suddenly switches from Fava's point of view to his\nown and retells the story.\n\n\"'Can You talk?' I shook it. It swung its head from side to side, then\nnodded. Already its lizard's face was softening a little, melting.\"\n\n\"'What's your name?' 'Mee.'\"\n\nIt seems that just by observing a human the inhuma was able to shape itself\nas a human (although maybe a rough version of one) and talk. Unless all of\nthis ability came from its parent feeding off of humans previously? By\nfeeding on humans I would suspect the inhuma can then perfect its imitation.\n\nQuestion:\nWhy did Fava say that what the inhuma were doing in the water was bad?\n\n\"As soon as she laid eyes on him, she knew that everything she and her\nplaymates had been doing in the river was wrong, and pulled herself up onto\nthe bank.\"\n\nIs she saying that by seeing a human she realized that being a simple\nanimal/lizard, eating and surviving as a lizard, is wrong? That it is\nbetter to be a human? What would make an animal feel this way upon seeing a\nhuman? Why would this thought even enter an animal's brain?\n\n\nDennis/Endy\nhttp://home.mindspring.com/~endymion9/index.htm\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Westlake", "address": "peter at harlequin.co.uk" }, "date": "2000-08-25T10:46:18+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) IGJ Fava's Second Story", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "At 18:26 2000-08-24 -0500, Endymion9 wrote:\nJust reread this section and have some observations and questions." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "..." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"For a time, she ran behind him on all fours like a dog.\" So four clawed\nlegs? So does everything on Green have four legs? (Neighbors, inhuma) I\nsee no description of how many legs a grabber has. Many animals of Blue\nhave eight legs. Why the 4 legs vs. 8 legs difference in the two planets?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "They're different planets! They might exchange microbes via meteorites,\nbut life would have evolved separately. The particular numbers might be\nsignificant to the story somehow; does anyone think there is any more\nto this than providing Horn with an eight-legged horse?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Just by seeing Incanto's leader and not yet having fed on him she assumes\nhuman form.\n\"She stood up as he did, and toddled along behind him, leaving her baby\nfootprints in the mud.\"\n\nAnd is able to talk in the human tongue." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I wondered about that. It's not unreasonable in this universe,\nperhaps, where memory is chemical and replicated throughout the body.\nThe infant inhumu presumably talk to one another in the Common Tongue?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "It's funny that Incanto suddenly switches from Fava's point of view to his\nown and retells the story." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I took this to be him writing about what had happened after the fact,\nnot something that he said at the time. But then it's harder to see\nhow he \"got into the story\". What was that all about, anyway? If this\nis Fava's own childhood, as we must strongly suspect it is, did he get\ninto *that* and change it? A bit of time travel between sentences? Or\nis this the telepathic link that's invoked to explain seeing the trees?" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "\"'Can You talk?' I shook it. It swung its head from side to side, then\nnodded. Already its lizard's face was softening a little, melting.\"\n\n\"'What's your name?' 'Mee.'\"\n\nIt seems that just by observing a human the inhuma was able to shape itself\nas a human (although maybe a rough version of one) and talk. Unless all of\nthis ability came from its parent feeding off of humans previously? By\nfeeding on humans I would suspect the inhuma can then perfect its imitation.\n\nQuestion:\nWhy did Fava say that what the inhuma were doing in the water was bad?\n\n\"As soon as she laid eyes on him, she knew that everything she and her\nplaymates had been doing in the river was wrong, and pulled herself up onto\nthe bank.\"\n\nIs she saying that by seeing a human she realized that being a simple\nanimal/lizard, eating and surviving as a lizard, is wrong? That it is\nbetter to be a human? What would make an animal feel this way upon seeing a\nhuman? Why would this thought even enter an animal's brain?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "She has a lot of human in her, though, via the blood supply left\n(as I read it) in the egg by her mother.\n\nSbearo.\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }