Tierra del Fuego

j e · 29 Mar 2001, 12:21 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "j e" <lo_phan17 at HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: (whorl) Tierra del Fuego
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 12:21:28
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0511 at digest.urth.net>
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>
>From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at charter.net>
>Subject: Re: Windcloud

>Unless, of course, the testifying alien is none other than Pas himself,
>since "Windcloud" is essentially what Typhon/typhoon means--("A whirlwind,
>cyclone, tornado; a violent storm of wind, a hurricane," OED)--plus we
>already have the depiction of Pas as a whirlwind from as long ago as the
>LONG SUN series. What, if not a cloud-of-wind, is a whirlwind, cyclone,
>tornado, etc.?
>
>Interesting to think that this might be the only on-stage appearance of a
>major player from both the latter SUN series.
>
>But then this would also mean that Pas was a Neighbor and we all know how
>ludicrous a notion that is, right?
>
>Robert Borski

Pas as Neighbour? Or is it a doubling of names. There is a Neighbour named=20
Horn who (pg 260 OBW) is of the party giving Blue to the people of the long=20
sun whorl. The only connection to Windcloud we read at this time is the=20
section before where Horn and Barsat and Hari Mau and others visit the=20
Neighbour house near Gaon and Horn finds the cup given him by Windcloud (wh=
o=20
mentions the gift at the trial in Dorp). Is Windcloud present when Horn=20
recieves the "godlike" gift of Blue? Probably, but if he's Pas why isn't he=20
giving the whorl himself instead of as a group of equals beings?

I said before I was going to look into connections with Tierra del Fuego.
Cape Horn was named by the first European to sail around the cape. He was a=20
Dutch captain named Willem Cornelius Schouten and he named it for his=20
birthplace Hoorn which incidentally means horn.  I=E2=80=99m not sure Wolfe=
 intends=20
a connection with Patagonia (Land of Giants)or Tierra del Fuego (Land of=20
Fires) but the cold and the terrain he describes could fit. The aborigines=20
wore capes like the Neighbours and lit enough fires to blacken the sky but=20
were exterminated by the colonists from Europe, not driven into=20
_mirror-space_ by a species of =E2=80=9Cplastic people=E2=80=9D.
The first contact between the peoples of Tierra del Fuego and the Europeans=20
was made by Magellan, who found a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific=20
that=E2=80=99s named for him.  An MS-Encarta search on Ferdinand Magellan y=
ields=20
little in the way of possible connections. He=E2=80=99s credited as being t=
he first=20
to circumnavigate the globe but he never lived to complete the voyage which=20
was finished by one of the ships in his command. He died during an attack o=
n=20
an island in the steamy Philippines (Mactan) and only circumnavigated the=20
globe by having passed the most easterly point he=E2=80=99d reached on an e=
arlier=20
voyage.

Crateowl

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