no inhumi on Urth - reason, Silk/Sev parallelism

maa32 · 01 Dec 2002, 01:37 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) no inhumi on Urth - reason, Silk/Sev parallelism
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 18:37:12 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0212-2297 at digest.urth.net>
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Here is a fascinating quote from Sword of the Lictor, which talks about a=20
secret of the trees that is almost revealed to Severian (from the chapter=20
entitled "The Widow's Hut":

"I made my way through a forest less precipitious than the one through whic=
h I=20
had followed the brook.  The dark trees seemed, if anything, older.  The gr=
eat=20
ferns of the south were absent there, and in fact I never saw them north of=20
the House Absolute ... but there were wild violets with glossy leaves and=20
flowers the exact color of opoor Thecla's eyes growing between the roots of=20
the trees, and moss like the thickest grenn velvet .... I heard the barking=
 of=20
a dog.  At the sound, the sildence and wonder of the trees fell back, prese=
nt=20
still but infinitely more distant.  I felt that some mysterious life, old a=
nd=20
strange, yet kindly too, had come to the very moment of REVEALING ITSELF to=20
me, then drawn away like some immensely eminent person, a master of the=20
musicians, perhaps, whom I had struggled for years to attract to my door bu=
t=20
who in the act of knocking had heard the voice of another guest who was=20
unpleasing to him and had put down his hand and turned away, never to come=20
again.  Yet how comforting it was." (89)  Then he goes on to say that the=20
roots of the trees may have pre-existed Urth, or form the very ground that =
he=20
walks on.  Also, remember that the trees take part in the cannibalistic rit=
ual=20
of Vodalus: " the trees nodded, and I nodded with them". THE TREES PARTICIP=
ATE=20
IN THE CEREMONY OF THE LIEGE OF LEAVES.  Also remember that there is a big=20
section that talks about Vodalus hiding the forests of Lune - sentient tree=
s=20
there, maybe?  The trees of Green?

Here is the deal: it is too cold down South for the trees to thrive.  Warmt=
h=20
is necessary.  The reason that there are obviously little to no inhumi in t=
he=20
Urth sections of Return to the Whorl is not because they can't have evolved=20
yet (it only takes a generation or two, as Quetzal must prove), but because=
 IT=20
IS TOO COLD ON URTH.  It would kill them before the New Sun came.  Only in =
the=20
warmer north can the sentient trees even survive.  After the new sun comes,=20
Lune is pulled from its regular orbit (perhaps even out of orbit if you but=20
that Green is a separate planet altogether, but I buy an oscillating spiral=20
orbit that blue and green follow around a central point of gravity as both =
go=20
around the sun - remember that the long sun whorl has the same year that Bl=
ue=20
does,and therefore the same year as Urth does).  Blue, or Ushas, is much=20
warmer than Urth was.  The trees and the inhumi can thrive farther south an=
d=20
come to the planet that is now more suited to living.

At last we have the case that sentient trees with a secret exist on Urth in=20
the quotes from Claw of the Conciliator and Sword of the Lictor - and remem=
ber=20
that these trees partake in a cannibalistic ritual in which the consumer ta=
kes=20
on the traits of the one consumed, and that Vodalus leaves with these trees.
Blue is warm, the orbit of Lune is changed, the salty sea is diluted by the=20
melted polar ice caps, and the Green Man could always travel freely through=20
the corridor of time - but remember the stipulations - he couldn't come bac=
k=20
and set himself free from his trap because there are time restrictions thro=
ugh=20
the Brook Madregot.  If there are sentient trees and giant sea creatures an=
d=20
oxygen to breath and cognates of many Urth species on Blue, then I think it=
's=20
time we really apply Occam's razor and get to the motivation of Pas: he wan=
ts=20
to immortalize himself on the original home of mankind: Urth.  The whorl=20
always had a circular destination.

We even have evidence of sentient trees on Urth now participating in eating=20
humans.  What more do we need?  Imagine that the liana's thrive in the=20
newfound warmth of Lune after the New Sun comes, and that the Neighbors (ak=
a=20
the hybrids produced by the bioengineered trees meant to cultivate Lune and=20
the original settlers of Lune) of Green come back to Ushas, then leave, wit=
h=20
only the trees to mark there passage.

One more thing: in On Blue's Waters, there is a quote that talks about goin=
g=20
to a region where the trees are less sleepy, and how babbie won't remain=20
intelligent for long if he goes into the trees.  I'll find it tomorrow.  Al=
so,=20
one of the only places where Horn the narrator says that we won't believe h=
im=20
is when the four-armed man comes onto his boat and he says how absurd his=20
ideas are to explain that man: that he was a favored of the gods who lived =
so=20
long and then abandoned the upper world for the depths of the ocean, one wh=
o=20
couldn't die.  The only other case of a narrator stating that what happened=20
was completely unbelievable, despite all the strange stuff that happens, is=20
when Severian says that he won't include Silk in his text because no one wo=
uld=20
believe it. I argue that Wolfe employs this parallelism to make the one=20
unspeakable thing in Severian's narrative Horn/Silk and the one deliberatel=
y=20
unexplainable thing in Silk's narrative Severian.

also, Horn performs Severians task in "In Green's Jungles" when he takes a=20
black sword and a light and cuts away the detritus of human remains to allo=
w a=20
cleansing flood through the aqueduct.  (just as Severian carries Terminus E=
st=20
and the Claw and eliminates all humanity to start anew with green men).  Th=
ey=20
really do parallel each other.

Marc Aramini

--=20

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