Violet=Plutonium

David Stockhoff · 14 Nov 2011, 20:52 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

This is the message as the crawl holds it, before anything here touched it. What the conversation shows has been through ingest: transfer encodings decoded, attachments dropped, quote markers repaired, and the archiver’s ? resolved into quotation marks and dashes. Those repairs are judgements and some of them are wrong, which is what this page is for. Email addresses are obscured here as they are everywhere else on the site, so it is before our repairs rather than byte for byte.

From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:52:46 -0500
Subject: (urth) Violet=Plutonium
In-Reply-To: <4EC17979.6020005 at irit.fr>
References: <SNT123-W21ED3B3B63EF89F243B1B7CFC00 at phx.gbl>
	<4EC17979.6020005 at irit.fr>
Message-ID: <4EC17F9E.10302 at verizon.net>

On 11/14/2011 3:26 PM, Sergei SOLOVIEV wrote:
> Sergei Soloviev:
>
> The discussion about "Violet = Plutonium" went quite far, but I think
> again this guess (that she is a chem) is hardly supported by the text.
> The idea that she is an agent of Trivigauntis is not supported either.
>
> "EftLS" ("Lovers"). Chenille calls Orchid via monitor:
> "... I need a favor, only there'll be something for you. Maybe a card. 
> Maybe more."
> "... you see the mort in doss in the next room? She's the 
> Trivigaunti's generalissiomo.
> Her name is Siyuf."
> "... I got to bet the hoof. Is Violet riding pretty light?"
> "... Siyuf likes tall dells, she would've given me five easy.... 
> Violet ought to get more
> if she soaps her. Tell her to come uphill and play spoons, tell Siyuf 
> she's my pal ..."
> " Only I get half."
>
> "EftLS" (I'm Auk")
> Chenille calls Silk to the "Ermine's".
> (Violet told her where Silk and Hyacinth are.)
> "... so I talked to Violet some myself (after she was with Siyuf)."
> "So it pops out that Trivigauntis caught a flier..."
> "Only you didn't know they killed three, did you? Three fliers. That's 
> what Siyuf
> said, Violet says."
> "... Violet figured it might be good to know where this flier was. You 
> know,
> something somebody might pay to know."
> "... And Violet spilled something about me and Auk, Patera, just 
> making conversation,
> she says, with Siyuf. She says as soon as she said Auk's name Siyuf 
> wanted to know all
> about him. ... Violet think Auk's mixed with this flier somehow, and 
> now the Trvigauntis
> are looking for him..."
>
> Does it look as if she is an agent of Trivigauntis?  It is just "call 
> girl" who
> does her work and wants her piece of cake.
>
> Does it look as if she is a chem? To deceive Chenille, Orchid, other 
> girls?
> No chems visiting Orchid!
>
> We have again a hotly discussed theory based
> on scant evidence. : (
>
> If we look at the Sand's visit to Siyuf:
>
> "a tall and strikingly handsome brunette in a diaphanous gown peered 
> out.  (It is Violet.)
> 'Hi. You want to see Generalissimo Siyuf?'"
> "You got it, Plutonium"
> ...
> "The handsome young woman nodded. 'Close enough, Soldier. I'm Violet."
> "Sergeant Sand, pleased."
> ...
> "Leaning over Violet's shoulder, Hammerstone ponted with a finger 
> thrice the size
> of hers.
> 'I don't really read so good', she whispered. 'What's that second 
> word? It can't - Sweetheart,
> there's a Chenille in here. Is that the Chen we know?"
>
> I would think the chems are not illiterate. Violet calls Hammerstone 
> sweetheart -
> but it doesn't mean he is a Bio. I think Wolfe merely renders the 
> style of
> chat - both of Violet and soldiers.
>
> Later Sand says (about Bison and Mint) : "Colonel Bison's General 
> Mint's man. If she
> says spit oil, he says how far?" Does it mean that Bison is a chem?? 
> Again just
> argot (soldiers style).
>
> "As Abanja face faded to gray, Violet murmured, 'I'd help if I could, 
> only -'
> 'Sure, Plutonium.' Slinging his slug gun, Sand stooped, grasped an 
> astonished Siyuf about
> the waist..."
>
> Sand is able to be sarcastic, ne c'est pas?
>
> I really think that many of the theories we discuss here are
> like skyscrapers built on sand
>
> All the best
>
> Sergei Soloviev

Well, not entirely. First, we are not building skyscrapers but rather 
imagining what they might look like and how they might be built. I don't 
think Violet is a chem either, but if not, why not?

Second, as an employee of Orchid's---and a big girl to boot, "second 
tallest" in fact---Violet is already a spy suspect before she happily 
gets into bed with Siyuf. Having her be a chem too probably complicates 
the situation too much.

Violet calling Hammerstone "sweetheart" means little in a prostitute. 
Calling someone you know by a completely different name---one that 
violates the known naming conventions, as "Plutonium" does---is a little 
different.

Good point about Violet being illiterate though---if she's not faking it.

An unofficial mirror of a public mailing list · about & removal requests · download the archive · before the list · original archive at urth.net