Ziggurat confusion

mark millman · 28 Jan 2000, 14:14 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: mark millman <millman at us.ncipher.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Ziggurat confusion
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 14:14:21
Message-ID: <urth-v0028-0747 at digest.urth.net>
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I can't believe that the women from the future are clones=20
of the captured twin; for one thing, the women are the=20
same height as a pair of eleven-year-old girls.  For another,=20
the twins are described as having dark hair, but no mention=20
of their skin tone is ever made, as far as I can recall (I don't=20
have a copy of the story with me either).  This suggests that=20
they're not particularly swarthy, at least as compared to=20
Emory, Jan, and Brook.  The women are noticeably dark,=20
but not so much so that in Africa they wouldn't seem no-
ticeably light-skinned.  I think that if Wolfe had wanted to=20
suggest that the women are direct descendants of the twin,=20
he'd have given another (maybe only one more, but at least=20
that one) clue.  The facts that that the twins and the women=20
are the same size; that the twins' father is Mediterranean and=20
Emory gives Tamar a Hebrew name; that the name Tamar=20
is associated with an incestuous episode; and that Emory's
relationship with Tamar must, to some degree, be a paternal
one at least in the sense of providing education, protection,
and the necessities of life (as Tamar is unfamiliar with the=20
culture, doesn't speak the language, and is wounded to boot)
all create an atmosphere in which the implication that the rela-
tionship between Emory and Tamar is somehow incestuous=20
naturally arises; but this doesn't have to mean that there is any=20
literal sort of incest occurring, and in fact, I don't think that
there is.

Mark Millman

At 12:47 PM 28-01-00 -0500, Alex David Groce=20
<Alex_Groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu> wrote:

> <snipping Nutria's nice analysis>
>
> One thing--I think the twins are not necessarily=20
> "American white girls"--isn't their father, the=20
> tennis player, Mediterranean?  My copy is at=20
> home so I can't confirm this, but it's definitely=20
> the impression I got.  This is the best point in=20
> favor of the "twin clone in the future" idea--
> which I'm still not sure is intended.
>
>
> "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall=20
> make you free." John 8:32
> --
> Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
> Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University
> Computer Science Department
> 8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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