May 2014 Wolfe interview in _Technology Review_

Gerry Quinn · 05 Aug 2014, 16:22 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:22:54 +0100
Subject: (urth) FW: May 2014 Wolfe interview in _Technology Review_
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On 05/08/2014 14:54, Marc Aramini wrote:
>
> Seeing as how I view Shadow Children as psychically gifted and 
> "empathetic" and capable of rising up in the draft of currents from 
> the ground and take seriously the idea that even though they are many 
> when they are confronted  they fade into "one lonely" - (ie a 
> parasitic community that infects a host so thoroughly that they are 
> effectively only that one being, the small things living in the mouth 
> that the large Shadow Child says might switch Eastwind and Sandwalker 
> when he bites them at the end of "A Story" (because he is infected 
> himself and is a "shadow child", though "A Story" is a myth and is not 
> realistic in all details, being symbolic in some), I feel most of your 
> discussion is probably moot - the Shadow Children are only human 
> insofar as they can infect them. Also, I believe Shadow Child 
> infection can alter the eyes, such as the doubled pupil that seems to 
> be undergoing meiosis or something after Marsch shoots the wild 
> animals near the back of beyond. I don't want to argue about any of 
> that stuff, but I do want to point out "all this is stated quite 
> clearly in the text" when you are talking about "A Story" in Fifth 
> Head of Cerberus is simply not an accurate assessment of all the 
> confusing stuff  and mystical mumbo jumbo going on, where both species 
> are very confused about their origin.  One is imitative, one 
> infectious, and both might have come from a single source of divergent 
> evolution ... or not.

There are no small creatures in the Shadow Child's mouth.  "That which 
swam in my mouth swims in his veins now" is singular - it refers to the 
drug plant they chew.  "And because I spoke to him and he believed me, 
in his mind he is you" - drug-induced hypnosis.  And I ask again, where 
do we find any reason to believe the original Marsch was infected in 
some way by Victor?  He got a cat-bite that went septic, but nowhere is 
infection linked to imitation.  The green eyes of the aborigines (such 
as Victor) are not double-pupilled - what have they to do with the eyes 
of the hippo or whatever?

I don't believe there is any confusion - we are given a quite coherent, 
if unlikely, story.  The Old Wise One is never confused about his origin 
until a large part of him is generated from Sandwalker's mind.  Then, 
and only then, does he become confused, and in a manner consistent with 
the story so far.  Note that the actual story doesn't change anyway - he 
just doesn't know which of the two peoples he is - the humans who 
crossed from star to star, landing on Sainte Anne, or the shape-shifting 
tool-less people - Sandwalker's ancestors - they found there.

- Gerry Quinn

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