fifth head owlet- wolf

Gerry Quinn · 30 Mar 2013, 14:44 · from 2013-March.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:44:45 -0000
Subject: (urth) fifth head owlet- wolf
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From: Marc Aramini

> Sorry, I will slow down now that I have finally wrapped my head around
> some of the weirder quotes.  I think the pertinent feature is on page 138
> of A story where the old wise one talks of a star faring species that was
> influenced by a people that used their hands only to take.  They were
> influenced by those individuals and went on, greater than before, before
>  crashing into the water of st Anne - "the singing shape slipped steaming
>  into the sea."
>
> This quote kind of casts doubt on any actual human presence on st Anne-
>  ancient starfaring shadow children imitating primitive man, then
> crashing on st Anne and being imitated by the shape shifting populace,
> a copy of a copy until real men show up.

Humans are a species, and the passage says the second species "came among" 
the first.  Those are the only two species that need be involved.  It was 
their mind-songs that were amplified by the interaction, becoming "greater 
than before".  The bad poetry of the OWO demonstrates this - the starcrosser 
technology involving a splashdown in the sea is exactly the same as is used 
by humans throughout the three novellas.

It is only reiterating what we are told elsewhere.  English-speaking 
colonists land (splash down, if you prefer), causing the transformation both 
of the indigenes (impressed by the colonists' power, they transform into 
what seem like men) and also the colonists (with their new-found telepathic 
powers, influenced by the indigenes and the drug they found, they shield the 
planets from external view in order to keep them for themselves, and 
ultimately become  the Shadow Children).

At the end of 'A Story', the twin planets become visible, and passing French 
ships land.  The French colonise the 'newly-discovered' planets, and are 
later ousted by English speakers (presumably the planets are in a stellar 
zone largely colonised by them).

- Gerry Quinn

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