Subject: Re: (whorl) IGJ <Spoilers> Fava's Second Story

From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 14:48:43 +0000

At 06:26 PM 8/24/00 -0500, Endymion wrote:
>It seems that just by observing a human the inhuma was able to shape itself
>as a human (although maybe a rough version of one) and talk.  Unless all of
>this ability came from its parent feeding off of humans previously?  By
>feeding on humans I would suspect the inhuma can then perfect its imitation.

This gives more support for my belief that the inhumi have some sort of
telepathy to enhance their predation, but it's weak support. We know that
they camouflage themselves as their prey; feeding on humans merely makes
the camouflage better. 

-- 
   Kevin Maroney | Unplugged Games 
   kmaroney at ungames.com | (212) 777-1190

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request at lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth at lists.best.com

---

From: Endymion9 <endymion9 at mindspring.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:26:02 +0000

Just reread this section and have some observations and questions.

Observations:
The little inhuma started off it's life in an egg.

Then emerged from the egg and found a swamp/pond.

She had claws.

She swam with fishes and fed on fishes.
"And every day they grew stronger and fewer, for the fish on which they fed,
fed on them."

But there is no mention of assuming fish form.  In fact after seeing
Incanto's leader
"For a time, she ran behind him on all fours like a dog."  So four clawed
legs?  So does everything on Green have four legs? (Neighbors, inhuma)  I
see no description of how many legs a grabber has.  Many animals of Blue
have eight legs.  Why the 4 legs vs. 8 legs difference in the two planets?

Just by seeing Incanto's leader and not yet having fed on him she assumes
human form.
"She stood up as he did, and toddled along behind him, leaving her baby
footprints in the mud."

And is able to talk in the human tongue.

"The little girl whose adventures I have been recounting to you knew nothing
of heroes and swords, ...

...as the grabber was dead she overcame her natural shyness sufficiently to
speak to the leader who had killed it and saved her, offering her timid
thanks and after some hesitation venturing to say that she thought his was
the best shape for everyone."

It's funny that Incanto suddenly switches from Fava's point of view to his
own and retells the story.

"'Can You talk?' I shook it.  It swung its head from side to side, then
nodded.  Already its lizard's face was softening a little, melting."

"'What's your name?' 'Mee.'"

Question:
Why did Fava say that what the inhuma were doing in the water was bad?

"As soon as she laid eyes on him, she knew that everything she and her
playmates had been doing in the river was wrong, and pulled herself up onto
the bank."

Is she saying that by seeing a human she realized that being a simple
animal/lizard, eating and surviving as a lizard, is wrong?  That it is
better to be a human?  What would make an animal feel this way upon seeing a
human?  Why would this thought even enter an animal's brain?

Dennis/Endy
http://home.mindspring.com/~endymion9/index.htm

---

From: Peter Westlake <peter at harlequin.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 10:46:18 +0000

>Just reread this section and have some observations and questions.
...
>have eight legs.  Why the 4 legs vs. 8 legs difference in the two planets?

They're different planets! They might exchange microbes via meteorites,
but life would have evolved separately. The particular numbers might be
significant to the story somehow; does anyone think there is any more
to this than providing Horn with an eight-legged horse?

>And is able to talk in the human tongue.

I wondered about that. It's not unreasonable in this universe,
perhaps, where memory is chemical and replicated throughout the body.
The infant inhumu presumably talk to one another in the Common Tongue?

>own and retells the story.

I took this to be him writing about what had happened after the fact,
not something that he said at the time. But then it's harder to see
how he "got into the story". What was that all about, anyway? If this
is Fava's own childhood, as we must strongly suspect it is, did he get
into *that* and change it? A bit of time travel between sentences? Or
is this the telepathic link that's invoked to explain seeing the trees?

>human?  Why would this thought even enter an animal's brain?

She has a lot of human in her, though, via the blood supply left
(as I read it) in the egg by her mother.

Sbearo.