Secret of the Inhumi - Please Destroy My Theory

James Wynn · 26 Mar 2009, 21:55 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:55:03 -0500
Subject: (urth) Secret of the Inhumi - Please Destroy My Theory
References: <273409710903261341i198acd9fub1570504ae442f2a at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <21A6E8830D47461395FB0CE5C0D2E666@eMachinePC>

>1)  Isn't there something about how breeding for
>Inhumi has to take place on green?  Isn't that at least implied?

Inhumi can only give birth and rear their young on Green.

>2)  The 'civilization' of the Inhumi is on green

True. But it is merely a twisted *human* form of civilization.

>3)  They require human slaves and food on Green to continue

I think they are capable of surviving by feeding on non-humans. The reason 
they want humans on Green is so they will be more accessible to inhuma to 
ensoul their children.

>4)  Human slaves are only possible by tricking people on a lander
>(either from the Whorl or by taking them from Blue, which seems to
>have happened more than just in Pajarocu).
>SO:  If you destroy all the landers, the breeding/slave cycle would be 
>broken

No. But it would be harder if landers stopped going to Green entirely. They 
still have a population on Blue. If stopping the landers to Green were all 
it took, then I'm sure the Mainframe workers could have figured out a way to 
have the monitors never schedule trips to Green anymore.
Anyway, in RTTW Silk receives a word from Pas that it is not necessary for 
anymore Cargo to disembark the Whorl. He's going to stop making the Cargo 
miserable there to force them to disembark. So mission accomplished there 
already.

>(espcially if you are one of those who think they lie about
>Conjunction and only get to Blue on Landers).

I just can't see a point to this beyond orneriness on Wolfe's part (not that 
that is not reason enough). There's no actual evidence that I know of that 
the inhumi don't cross that way. Some readers just find it implausible. But 
Wolfe is criticized for this all the time.
Anyway, I don't think the landers refuel at the Whorl, do they? So they will 
eventually stop on their own.

[snip]
>Also, this, to me, ties into the Sewer scene, which, for me at least, is
>indicated to be a huge clue for the secret.
>(Neighbor:  No, we are trying to show you how to save yourselves")
>When he clears out the sewers, the Old Cannibal makes a point of
>saying "It's what's past"..."You see that, don't you?  It's the past 
>holding on."
>This made me think of the Whorl.  People get on Landers to go back
>to the whorl, because that is the past holding on.

Hmmm...at first I thought you were going to suggest this quote means that 
Urth is Green or Blue. That would be a compelling reference, I suppose.

>Horn clears the sewers.  Silk removes the Whorl.
>Both are reflective symbolic actions, of clearing out the past,
>which is what the neighbors were trying to show Horn as the
>way to save humanity.
>[snip]
>Certainly, to me, it is a big reason why Silk taking the Whorl
>out of the system now makes a
>hell of a lot of sense.

Well, I don't think I can prove this is NOT so. But I don't think the 
landers are so pivotal as you theory implies.

>(and I now DO think it was Silk, with the bit of Pas in him,
>that makes the Whorl leave the system)

Oh wait! You mean this makes you agree with me about this? Then, in that 
case, it must be so!
;-)

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