Literal or metaphor?

Lee Berman · 14 Apr 2013, 17:29 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:29:21 -0400
Subject: (urth) Literal or metaphor?
Message-ID: <BLU175-W21827C12C996EF855C6D97CFC30 at phx.gbl>

>David Stockhoff- Granting, of course, that "bull" could designate a 
>moose as well as a steer. But I agree that Horn's family is named 
>around the animal *most *Earth people, especially around the 
>Mediterranean (and including the ancient Egyptians, thus influencing 
>Greek mythology), have used for leather, meat, and glue for thousands 
>of years. I'm curious what else Roy thought it might be.

It was a number of years ago. But IIRC, the debate started when someone 
else speculated that the name of a certain character, (maybe Patera Bull 
or even Bison?) was suggestive of him being related to Horn. I think it
was Roy's general contention that Vironese names were picked (by Wolfe)
at random and any connections between them were personal inventions and 
shouldn't be to be used to find extra-curricular meaning. I remember asking 
Roy if he might concede that if not bovine then ungulate connections tied
the male names of Horn's family together, but he never responded. That may 
have marked the end of Roy's participation on this board. A shame, but
understandable.

I think the Long Sun naming falls along the same lines as saint names in 
BotNS.  Some, like Dorcas, are clearly significant while most are not. 
Perhaps most of the plant and animal names of Viron were not picked with
significant meanings but others like the Silk-Chenille-Tussah cluster or
most obviously the Potto-Tarsier-Lemur, et al. group clearly were intended 
to imply connection.

In addition to connections surely some names like Blood, Quetzal or Remora or Bison were meant to reflect certain obvious or hidden attributes of the individual, themselves.

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