Quetzal

Andrew Mason · 17 Jan 2011, 12:04 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com (Andrew Mason)
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:04:23 +0000
Subject: (urth) Quetzal
Message-ID: <AANLkTineX-ssmL7jen+kNeRESJu4ksnpekHxK_fjtBSp at mail.gmail.com>

Antonio Pedro Marquez wrote:

> hammstu at sbcglobal.net wrote:
>> How Quetzal got on the Whorl is certainly one of the big unanswered
>> questions for me...but didn't someone suggest ?that he wanted the Whorl
>> to go to Green to be a food source for the Inhumi?? A fully stocked
>> fridge ???
>
> Yes, because it's the logical thing to think. But how solidary are the
> inhumi with each other?

Wolfe has said that Quetzal wanted a thriving human colony on Green.
So that was certainly his preferred destination. (Interestingly, he
also said we would have to read _Short Sun_ to find out why. One might
think that the 'Defense' at the end of _Long Sun_ tells us enough -
that he wanted a food source for his people; this may suggest there is
more to it than that.)

How could he ever think the people would follow his
> selection after he were exposed? (Remora is an odd case; a man apparently
> unable to decide anything whatsoever by himself.)

Well, as you say, people (Remora) did. Presumably he knew Remora well
enough to bank on this. He may not have taken the monitor into
account. Alternatively, perhaps he didn't know he would revert to his
natural apperarance when he died.

> Or could Quetzal intend them for Green but not to be preyed upon? Could he> have had any other purpose?

That's possible, and indeed Wolfe's words may suggest it, depending
how strongly you interpret 'thriving'. Do we know what inhumi society
on Green was like before the humans arrived there? Quetzal may have
miscalculated what the impact would be.

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