The Loganstone

David Stockhoff · 11 Aug 2013, 15:57 · from 2013-August.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 11:57:25 -0400
Subject: (urth) The Loganstone
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In IGJ, chapter 14, Duko Rigoglio mentions the Loganstone, assumed to be 
the lander that carried him and others to the Whorl. I don't see any 
speculation about this name in Moonmilk.

A logan stone is a large rock that wobbles. From the wiki for Rocking Stone:

*Rocking stones* (also known as *logan stones* or /*logans*/) are large 
stones <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_%28geology%29> that are so 
finely balanced that the application of just a small force causes them 
to rock. They are found throughout the world. Some are man-made 
megaliths <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalith>, but others are 
natural, often left by glaciers. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier>

Logan or rocking stones are known in Scotland 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland> sometimes as *clach-br?th*. They 
marked locations where Scottish open-air courts 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court> would take place. A clach-br?th is 
sometimes known as a judgment stone. The reason that courts were near 
logan stones is that the movement of stones in such formations was used 
to determine the guilt or innocence of those accused of serious crimes 
in ancient times.

The word "logan" is probably derived from the word "log", which in an 
English dialect means to rock. In fact, in some parts of the UK, rocking 
stones or logan stones are called logging stones. The word "log" might 
be connected with the Danish word "logre", which means to "wag a tail". 
Some have suggested that the word "logan" comes from a Cornish 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_language> expression for the 
movement that someone makes when inebriated.

I draw two correspondences from this:

(1) Being chosen/accepted for transport on the Whorl must have been 
seen, or may be taken, as a sort of judgment. Whether positive or 
negative in terms of loyalty to Typhon's family, I don't know. But the 
judgment connotation should fit in with the other Old 
Testament-connected "big ideas," such as the Whorl itself as a demiurgic 
Tower of Babel.

(2) There is a Dionysiac connotation here, based on the possible 
derivation from drunken staggering.

(3) Together, these seem to point to the Outsider.

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