Patera Incus

Gerry Quinn · 15 Aug 2010, 15:08 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2010 16:08:54 +0100
Subject: (urth) Patera Incus
References: <SNT123-W537E347BAF46EE639CED1CF980 at phx.gbl>	<A1EA69F072294007B1115BEBC592DCEA@jill><4C66931D.9050001 at io.com>	<4C66EFCC.3000903 at gmail.com><F5472B5BDEFE4B3783C68223652EB108@jill>
	<4C67F9BE.2000507 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1507FF804F5A48C09B7E5C5155D69026@jill>


From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at gmail.com>
>>> 1.1.2 Second Attempt. This time Incus disguises his handwriting.
>>> "You know, my friend, yet it might be more thoughtully be said that you 
>>> cannot know, how much I have been looking forward to a _plain firsthand 
>>> account_ of the marvelous adventures of our mutual acquaintance Bee. Bee 
>>> himself.
>>> Incus thinks, "No, it would not do. Fulmar would be utterly thrown off 
>>> the scent by _the male pronoun_." [emphasis mine]
>>> Question how does the male pronoun throw Fulmar "off the scent"? Off the 
>>> scent of what?
>>
>> Gerry Quinn-
>> Of who "Bee" is, surely?  Wasn't it short for a female's name, somebody 
>> other than Incus, who had reprogrammed the valet chem?
>
> That doesn't really work.
>
> 1) The valet was a male chem.

I mixed up Bittersweet's porter and Fulmar's valet, but that doesn't really 
matter.

"Bittersweet had promised to show everyone the wonders she had achieved with 
an old porter... Incus had wanted to see that"  (He wanted to check out the 
valet too.)

In his letter he writes "I have been looking forward to a firsthand account 
from our mutual acquaintance Bee.  Bee himself."

My understanding was that he was trying to be discreet in case the letter 
was intercepted.

> "Nor would the trouble and loss of time go entirely unrecompensed; he, 
> Incus, would at least have the satisfaction of inquiring just how long it 
> had been since the unfortunate valet had received _his_ wages, and 
> observing the chem's baffled incomprehension."
> Lake of the Long Sun, Chapter X, On the Belly of the Whorl
>
> 2) Remember that this is the *second* attempt at a letter. I don't think 
> there's any way the first could be interpreted as relating to the valet or 
> the experiment.

But how does the first version help your case?

(By the way, this is just a quibble about one of your reasons why Incus 
might be a woman; it doesn't apply to the rest.)

- Gerry Quinn

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