{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/988",
    "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": 988,
    "subject": "Between worlds: inhumi-powered flight",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2000-08-29T14:44:50+00:00",
    "last": "2000-08-30T08:31:26+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0011-0198@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at charter.net"
      },
      "date": "2000-08-29T14:44:50+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Between worlds: inhumi-powered flight",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "This will probably put me at odds with the usual bunch, but I'd like now to\nsuggest that the entire notion about how the inhumi are able to fly back and\nforth between Green and Blue is folklore concocted by the\nscientifically-illiterate colonists.\n\nConsider the following two passages from BLUE:\n\n\"The inhumi can fly...They can even fly through the airless vastness of the\nabyss, passing from Green to Blue, and back to Green, when they are at or\nnear conjunction. I have never understood how that was possible.\" (180)\n\nThis does not stop Horn, however, from speculating thusly:\n\n\"By an extreme effort, they could 'jump' out of the great sea of air\nsurrounding the whorl they wished to leave, taking aim at the whorl to which\nthey wished to go. Their aim would not have to be precise, since they would\nbegin to fall toward the whorl they were trying to reach as soon as they\nneared it. Landers, as I knew even then, must be built so that they will not\noverheat when they arrive at a new whorl. But landers are much larger than\nthe largest boats, and being constructed almost entirely of metals, they\nmust be much heavier. The inhumi are not bigger than small men, although\nthey appear so large when their wings are spread; and even though they are\nstrong, they are no means heavy. Light objects fall much more slowly than\nheavy ones, something that anyone may see by dropping a feather as I have\njust dropped Oreb's here at my desk. The heat that troubles the landers must\npresent no great problems to the inhumi.\"\n\nApparently, basic science has never been taught at Horn's schola, and if an\nequivalent speech were someday made in a George Lukas movie, we'd all be\nhowling our sides off. But by showing us how scientifically naïve Horn is, I\nbelieve Wolfe is attempting to suggest that Horn and his fellow colonists do\nnot have the necessary background to see how wildly implausible\nwinged-flight between the two worlds is. \"Jumping\" so mightily they escape\nGreen's gravitational pull; \"falling\" toward their new destination; failing\nto burn up when they hit the new whorl's atmosphere because they're lighter\nthan landers; these are the sorts of speculations an ignorant (if innocent)\nperson makes, but they are definitely not congruent to reality. (Horn does\nnot attempt to explain why an inhumu's blood gases don't boil off in the\nvacuum of space, but his biology is also suspect; thus his failure to\nexplain correctly the facts of life to Mora, where nutrition and body fat\npercentage are the primary determinants of menarche.) As for the observation\nthat the inhumi seem more plentiful during a conjunction, I'd like to\nsuggest that this is because the inhumi are simply seeking to exploit a\nniche created by the giant storms and tidal havoc, and where there may be\nquite a few displaced persons and ruined, vulnerable buildings; and that the\nniche is why they migrate, not because the worlds are closer for a crossing.\n\nBut if the inhumi don't wing their way across the void, how do they\naccomplish the transit? mantis has mentioned the landers already, but surely\nthere are not many of these. But what about the oneiric transport Incanto\nuses, always undergone, at least so far, with an inhuma at his side? As\nKrait at one time tells Horn,  \"Our race is older than yours, and has\nlearned things that you can't even dream of.\" Could this then be the method\nby which they access Blue--perhaps appropriated from the Neighbors as a\nblood secret?\n\nBecause no matter which way the feather falls, I'm not buying the\nwings-across-space theory.\n\nRobert Borski\n\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0011-0199@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Peter Westlake",
        "address": "peter at harlequin.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "2000-08-30T08:31:26+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (whorl) Between worlds: inhumi-powered flight",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0011-0198@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 14:44 2000-08-29 -0500, Robert Borski wrote:\nThis will probably put me at odds with the usual bunch, but I'd like now to\nsuggest that the entire notion about how the inhumi are able to fly back and\nforth between Green and Blue is folklore concocted by the\nscientifically-illiterate colonists."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I suggested this a while ago, but alga had some evidence that they\nreally could:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Yes, they really can (see LS3, the end). They shut down their breathing.\nBut they can't do it for very long distances, only when the two worlds are\nat their closest conjunction. They come to Blue to feed (assuming that the\nGreen colonists are not enough for them), but they need to return to Green\nto breed. Landers are not part of the scenario, as they are not good with\ntools (Krait pretty much tells us this). "
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Of course, they do have human slaves, now. I can't look up the passage\nalga cites until I get home; anyone recall the details?\n\nAs for the science, I might believe they could survive re-entry,\nbeing able to spread their wings like a parachute, but then how\nwould it be possible to kill them by burning? Horn reports seeing\nthis during his visit to (?)Skano.\n\nSbearo.\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}