Like a good Neighbor

David Stockhoff · 23 Nov 2011, 19:25 · from 2011-November.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:25:22 -0500
Subject: (urth) Like a good Neighbor
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On 11/23/2011 12:43 PM, James Wynn wrote:
> On 11/22/2011 11:45 AM,
>> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>>> A nice metaphor ? but I?m not trying to torture you, Marc.  I just 
>>> don?t
>>> think the books support the notion that inhumi are vegetables.
>> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
>> I don't know whether the inhumi _are_ the lianas or not, but I think
>> it's beyond clear that there is _some_ vital connection between them.
>
> Let me take another shot at their connection (although I don't think 
> I'm there yet):
>
> The Neighbors are trees. Not like the Ents of Tolkien. They are like 
> dryads. As their bodies sleep (particularly in the winter) they 
> dream-travel in the form that "Horn" encounters them during his 
> meeting and in the pit. In that form, they built cities and technology 
> and traveled to Green, bearing their seeds with them. If a Neighbor 
> dies in dream-travel, the same thing happens as happens for humans. 
> Their soul is dead but their body lives on. A tree body can grow for 
> hundreds of years and (presumably) reproduce without a soul. Perhaps 
> their children have no souls as well. On Green they encountered inhumi 
> who fed on them. Their children are ensouled by Neighbors. Now what 
> will such a being do? Perhaps they will lay in wait for a Neighbor to 
> come along, but in the meantime, they will not disguise themselves 
> with makeup and old clothes. Instead, they assume a woody form as they 
> go without food, leaning on the Neighbors sleeping bodies.
>
> There is a problem with this model: It is suggested that the Rajan 
> needs an inhumi to dream-travel. That's why he needs his staff. On the 
> other hand, maybe that isn't the case.

The Neighbors and Incanto's tale:

When Horn clears the sewer, is that his real body or a dream one?

I note the Neighbor tells him during that episode that there are two of 
him: I assume Horn and Neighbor. Is that right?

The narrator seems to make up things Horn would not likely do, like pray 
at the Vanished Goddess's altar. Is that right?

Finally, Incanto recalls a dream in which he (Horn) is in the pit. When 
he wakes, he is in his father's shop. Do you make sense of that?

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