Short Story 26: The HORARS of War

David Stockhoff · 23 May 2012, 10:17 · from 2012-May.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 06:17:09 -0400
Subject: (urth) Short Story 26: The HORARS of War
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On 5/23/2012 3:35 AM, Marc Aramini wrote:
>
> I just wanted to say that with the religious statements (one of the 
> star of bethlehem (god being born as man), one of talk of the 
> Scientist masquerading as one of His creations (capital He is revealed 
> to mean God to 2910), and the thought of the crucifixion in particular 
> to his own death, 2910 is only a number until the final external press 
> release, where his number is obscured in favor of a name we don't know.
> I feel that this imagery points to a being FULLY Horar and FULLY human 
> who by his actions (showing what the Enemy is) can bring the other 
> Horar's to the level of Man.  I don't think this has the same effect 
> if he is just a man pretending to be a Horar, because he is redeeming 
> the "lower" machine, though they are in fact not lower at all in this 
> story, only in that they cannot refuse the commands of human man until 
> they "realize" that they are man too.
> Thus, the pinnochio/punch and Christ reference for me only works if he 
> is a HORAR with the spirit of a man, and thus FULLY both.  If he is 
> just a man, then he is not fully Horar - how can he redeem them?  
> Also, he didn't remember the football injury until he had to justify 
> his humanity.
>

There is definitely something about 2910 that makes him different from 
other HORARS. The ambiguity is in whether he is a man, a human HORAR, 
neither, or something more. I agree that "both" and "more" are pointed 
to, if only because it's an easier interpretation and there is no reason 
to doubt it.

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