fifth head owlet- wolf

Gerry Quinn · 10 Apr 2013, 15:22 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:22:28 +0100
Subject: (urth) fifth head owlet- wolf
In-Reply-To: <1365603086.59646.YahooMailClassic at web160705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
References: <1365603086.59646.YahooMailClassic at web160705.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <D6B41C3FFDEC460EA13682C586012CEB@Rover>

From: Marc Aramini

> I agree, the name Many Pink Butterflies indicates there are a whole lot
> of pink "transformed" individual, and a street name like rue d'asticot
> (street of maggots/larva) would be consistent with that (no new houses
> have been built in Port Mimizon for 140 years, and their birth rate is 
> down.
> Number 4 (or so I assume) has cloned over 50 failed versions of himself.

*Mary* Pink Butterflies.  All the female children of the Hillmen are named 
Mary, I would guess, as all the males are named John, although the name is 
commonly elided.  And her mother explains why she is called Pink Butterflies 
also; it is because of her little hands waving.

Can somebody explain why Wolfe would have written a story and embedded 
randomly within it a bunch of highly obscure cryptic clues about how a race 
of apparently humanoid aliens are somehow really trees, or maggots, or 
whatever?  Especially when he actually *tells* us the secret history of 
their origin as part of the storyline?

- Gerry Quinn

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