inhuma in brazil

j e · 20 Jul 2002, 17:35 · from urth-v0207.mbox · original

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From: "j e" <lo_phan17 at hotmail.com>
Subject: (urth) inhuma in brazil
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 13:35:48 -0400
Message-ID: <urth-v0207-1447 at digest.urth.net>
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Reading _Brazilian Adventure_ late last night (by Peter Fleming - about an=20
exploration of central Brazil in the early thities) there's a section where=20
the writer descibes some of the birds they see while travelling on the=20
Araguaya river. Among the birds is the inhuma, which is:

...a gigantic and mysterious fowl, bigger than a cock capercailzie but buil=
t=20
on more or less the same lines. These would take refuge in the tops of tree=
s=20
and thence utter a strange, murmurous and rather asthmatic crooning. Whethe=
r=20
they are good to eat I can not say.

I tried a google search on inhuma and Brazil but all I came up with is a=20
reference to a Lake Inhuma. Still, I'm always thrilled to  find something=20
like this - a possible clue. Like the time I found a section on decision=20
trees in a book on math for engineers. There was a "source to sink" diagram=20
which struck me as similar to the kabbalah's tree of life. From that I had =
a=20
moment of intuition about Severian's judgement in Urth. When Tzadkiel says=20
(I paraphrase)_that we have examined your future and determined that the=20
probability of your bringing a new sun is high_, I see the corridors of tim=
e=20
viewed as a great decision tree. (It's interesting that the masters of Bria=
h=20
acknowledge some uncertainty and of course it fits the god does play dice=20
model).

While I'm de-lurked here, I have another conjecture. Does Olivine's manner=20
of speech indicate we are to hear it as an echoing from an incompletly=20
configured voice generator rather than a processing defect where she begins=20
a sentence, doesn't register that it's begun and repeats it. Her character=20
makes me sad and to think of her voice beginning as an hollow, broken sound=20
that echos just a little more audibly makes me want to weep.

I think the focus on speech mannerisms is an effort of Wolfe's to have us=20
hear the words, rather than read them flat. And there is likely a philosoph=
y=20
behind it rather than it just being a device to give depth to a realization=
.=20
I don't find any of them embarrassing or laughable as some have stated here=
.=20
In the interview with Nick Gevers recently he said Remora and Incus were=20
based on people he'd met. Anyone we might have heard of?

Joe Eull

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--=20

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