Pas, on disembarking: Howdy Neighbor

Kevin J. Maroney · 12 Mar 2001, 14:33 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Pas, on disembarking: Howdy Neighbor
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 14:33:55
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0428 at digest.urth.net>
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At 12:14 PM 3/12/01 -0600, Mssr. Borski wrote:
><Why would we believe that Pas is a Neighbor?>
>
>Well, as I've been arguing for some time now, I believe this notion answers
>more questions than it generates.

I don't like any of the answers, frankly.=20

>For starters, it explains why the Blue-Green system was targeted by the
>Whorl. Pas/Typhon is simply going home. Doubtless, other habitable systems
>much closer to Urth could have been targeted, but they haven't--why not?=20

A. We don't know that there are. There's no evidence whatsoever to judge
what criteria Typhon used to select the target for the _Whorl_. Personally,
I think that habitable planets are few and far between. (Of course, I also
believe that planets are an unnecessary luxury.)

B. We don't know that they haven't. There's no textual evidence that the
_Whorl_ is the only ship of its type.=20

>Secondly, Pas and the Neighbors both have two heads. Coincidence or plot
>point?=20

Pas's second head is artificial. This is explicitly stated in _New Sun_.
Typhon doesn't show any evidence of having any other attribute of the
Neighbors, including a long nose, an excess of limbs, etc. I wouldn't
presume to call something that obvious a "coincidence", but I think that
the connection is more subtle than that.=20

>Thirdly, who is the little girl in Hide's dream (RTTW, pgs. 22-24) who is
>being pursued by the talus-like doll and why are there also "tall men with
>too many legs" in some of the rooms Hide looks into? Isn't she Scylla, who
>we know is on the run from Pas? And why would there be Neighbors present?
>Wolfe's dream sequences are almost always meant to be revelatory.

I don't see any direct link between the presence of Neighbors in Hide's
dream and the presence of Scylla.=20

>Fourthly, at one point during IGJ, Horn sings in and translates from
>Neighborese--and not amateurishly, but well enough so that it completely
>discombobulates poor Colonel Terzo. When and how did Horn learn the langua=
ge
>of the Neighbors? From darling one-armed Seawrack?=20

Obviously, you are more familiar with the book than I, but I never got the
sense that Seawrack was singing in the Neighbors' language, or that Horn
had the opportunity to actually learn it from her. It seems equally likely
that Horn learned the Neighbors' language from becoming Neighborly himself.=20

--=20
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com

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