Keeping Up With the Neighbors

j e · 27 Mar 2001, 12:21 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "j e" <lo_phan17 at hotmail.com>
Subject: (whorl) Keeping Up With the Neighbors
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 12:21:51
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0487 at digest.urth.net>
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I am unlurking because I must. I enjoyed The Book of the Protagonist so muc=
h=20
I keep going back and rereading certain parts, especially the scenes with=20
the Neighbours which are so fascinating. Talarican had some interesting=20
thoughts:

>From: "Talarican" <exultnttalarican at mindspring.com>
>Subject: Keeping Up With the Neighbors
>Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 22:43:15 -0500

>
>Some thoughts on these Vanished People / Neighbors.
>
>First of all, they seem to be tall, eight-legged arthropods, i.e.
>spider-people. When the Neighbor "Horn" offered Horn his hand, it was hard
>and bristly, as one might expect an insect or spider's paw to be. The
>impression of the "dark cloak" could perhaps have been intended to suggest
>an abdomen? When Horn first saw one, from the pit, he did in fact believe=20
>it
>could have been a huge spider.

I can see spiders also, although Horn never mentions a connection when=20
speaking of the giant spiders on Green. (Don't have a copy for reference,=20
but it's in Horn's second story to Inclito's family IGJ)
I don't know what to make of the fact that the Neighbour said his name was=20
also Horn. The only (I think) other Neighbour name we read is Windcloud (pg=20
231 RTTW), which I associate with Pas' image. Windcloud fits with the=20
elemental nature of the Neighbours and Horn seems to serve them in that he'=
s=20
_real_ on Blue or Green.

Incidently, I've got to look into legends based of Tierra del Fuego, Horn=20
calls the place where he first meets Neighbour Horn the _land of fires_ - m=
y=20
next post.

>
>They also remind me in some ways of the Shadow Children and Old Wise One of
>5HC: They are spectral, difficult to see and count, and seem to love
>philosophical speculation. Also, they used the term "starcrosser" at the=20
>end
>of _Green's_, the first use of that term I've seen outside 5HC.

Horn, you'll remember wrote in "My Defense" (Exodus) that some thought his=20
book should have been called _Starcrosser's Landfall_. It's interesting tha=
t=20
a Neighbour would choose this word and not Lander, which Horn uses. (The tw=
o=20
words may both be common in the way some Bluvians say Vanished People, whil=
e=20
some say Neighbours). The _crosser_ in starcrosser may be an homage to=20
Quadrifons I suppose. Even the Inhumi say Crossing when speaking of the=20
jumping of planets at conjunction.

Now a small question. In LS, the span of Quetzal's time as _Prolocuter_=20
(note Jahlee's comment that inhumi catch their prey with their tongues as=20
someone pointed out on this list)is something like 30 years. The first=20
meeting of Vatican II was in 1962, thirty years before the publication of=20
NStLS. There are clearly parallels with the Prolocutor and the Pope.=20
Quetzal's prothonotary is named Bull, for one. One of the decisions made at=20
Vatican II was to allow the Mass to be said in the common tongue (if you=20
will). When exactly did Viron lose it's high speech? Did any of you read=20
recently about the exhumation of Pope JohnXXIII recently? His face was said=20
to be remarkably _composed_ for a man long dead. I could'nt help putting=20
this together with Whorlly things.  (Is World the past tense of Whorl?)

Before I finish, one more thing,
Was Uncle Gene referring to this list when he wrote of Pig's name=20
choice?(pg. 45 RttW).

I'll take the name Crateowl.

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