IGJ p 100-103

maa32 · 22 Aug 2003, 18:13 · from urth-v0308.mbox · original

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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: (urth) IGJ p 100-103
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 11:13:22 -0700
Message-ID: <urth-v0308-3990 at digest.urth.net>
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There is a reason I always paraphrase quotes instead of looking them up.  I=20
get distracted, especially in Short Sun, and then you guys have to suffer f=
or=20
it.  More Green is Urth from Aramini.

I have probably been accused of misrepresenting and bending the text to my =
own=20
vile purposes more than anyone on the list.  Call it intellectual laziness=20
instead of willful difficulty. I don't want that to happen, nor do I want t=
o=20
quote a whole three pages, so I am giving a page range this time.

I was looking up signs of hunger and after-meal sickness, but I never found=20
it.  Instead, I would ask that anyone interested refer to pages 101-103 in =
In=20
Green's Jungles in their entirety.

To encapsulate my previous theories, the trees are the vanished Gods who=20
recombine with animals and people through blood to make the multilimbed=20
creatures of Green and Urth; the liana vines are primitive inhumu who have =
not=20
yet feasted on human blood; Green is Urth in the future; some of Horn left=20
Silk's body at the end of OBW when he sat under a tree, and the tree was=20
responsible for it.  So far so bad.  Now:

Chapter 6 of In Green's Jungles is entitled "The Guessing Game"  Our humble=20
narrator goes and sits on a log, and suddenly he is recounting the end of t=
he=20
affair of the man on Green in First Person instead of third.
p 102: "At time sit seemed to me that a thousand inhumi must have been lurk=
ing=20
beneath the water,and that the points of light I aw were their glittering=20
eyes, softened by ripples,; but every few minutes a dark shape would pass=20
among them like a floating log, and I would realize yet again that it was w=
e,=20
not they, who populated the water. =20
Nor was that all I saw.  Great hailress beasts, on two legs and four, and s=
ix,=20
came to the river to drink or to course our floating corpses as bears pursu=
e=20
fish, and I recalled the strangely named bear with which He pen sheep had=20
exchanged blood, and wondered whether such bears sought carrion beside the=20
rivers of shadelow."
Over on page 103: "Without Oreb to remind me, I might very well forget to e=
at=20
and sleep.  Sudden enlightenment can be wonderful, as wonderful as the sigh=
t=20
of hte Neighbor's light flashing through the dense foliage of the band had=20
been to me.  But wonderful though it is, it is not the only way in which=20
understanding comes.  A full day after that (I still remember how hungry I =
was=20
by then), when something moved in ...."  [he mistakes his sword for a carri=
on=20
worm and it moves to his hand]

OK.  So here we have the narrator sitting on a tree corpse and thinking abo=
ut=20
his experience on Horn, then about 2, 4, and 6 legs after talking about a=20
blood transfusion.  Also, we have the statement that when he thinks of the=20
trees floating by that it was "us" under the water.

Oreb reminds the narrator to eat and sleep, as if he doesn't want to natura=
lly=20
anymore.  I especially like how the blood assimilation of the native bear=20
makes the narrator think of legs doubling and tripling, which I have=20
maintained all along: trees eat people, spit out hybrid copies.  Now, if a=20
hybrid of a tree and a man came about, could he live off of sunlight and ea=
t=20
when he had to as well, or is he stuck with just one form of sustenance?

I really should stop; I have quite convinced myself that I will never convi=
nce=20
anybody else.  Just be warned - if I am asked to look up anything in the bo=
ok,=20
I am liable to start posting the same things over and over.  I especially l=
ike=20
that the chapter starts with a discussion on enlightenment and is entitled=20
"The Guessing Game."  Ha ha.

Sorry.
Marc Aramini

--=20

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