The Book of the Short Sun

Michael Straight · 10 Apr 1999, 16:27 · from urth-v0025.mbox · original

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: (urth) The Book of the Short Sun
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 16:27:10
Message-ID: <urth-v0025-0044 at digest.urth.net>
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On Sat, 10 Apr 1999, Nicholas Gevers wrote:

> Regarding my speculation that the inhumi may be a good deal more
> sympathetic than most would believe (sorry for discussing this here,
> but Whorl is inactive these days):=20

> I think it's a reasonable guess that, considering how
> colonial guilt haunts both Fifth Head and TBotNS, a concern of Short
> Sun will be the justice of anyone occupying someone else's territory
> unasked (assuming, of course, that Blue isn't Ushas, in which case the
> cargo are simply returning home). Wolfe does a masterful job of
> keeping Quetzal's true intentions and moral nature ambiguous in Long
> Sun; this is a foundation for SOMETHING remarkable.

Speaking of ambiguity, we might remember that the Long Sun books were
written by a colonist (Horn) who may not have been entirely impartial in
his portrayal of Quetzal and the inhumi.  Some of the scenes where we get
the most characterization of Quetzal must be somewhat speculative
reconstruction on Horn's part, or at best second or third hand accounts
(such as the scenes with Quetzal and Remora).

As a colonist, Horn may have reasons (real or imagined, just or unjust) to
dislike the inhumi that he projects back into the Long Sun narrative.

-Rostrum

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