Pig's eye and astral needles

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 24 Apr 2001, 08:46 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Pig's eye and astral needles
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 08:46:15
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Quoth Jason Ingram:

> The question of tangibility is distinct.  I'm not sure how to=20
> delimit "physical" in this case. =20

Key point. I've said before & I'll say again: it is not science
fantasy; it is science fiction that makes some relatively unusual=20
(for SF) assumptions about the nature of Universe. In particular,
here, Mr Wolfe assumes (if only for the purpose of the novel) that=20
"spirit" is quite real and is (or can be) in some sense "tangible."

(As a possible point of comparision, note the treatment of "souls"
in the tv series Babylon-5, which I don't recall anyone ever trying=20
to call "science fantasy." Souls, in B5, prove to be (1) demonstrably
real, (2) sentient apart from bodies and (3) apparently-immortal.)

Now, "spirit" is (as noted before) related to "breath" which is,
anciently, synonymous with "life." When you stop breathing, you're
dead -- a pretty simple and obvious equation for a pre-EEG society.
But "the blood is the life," and if "life=3Dbreath=3Dspirit," then to
steal the blood is to steal the spirit. Thus, the inhumi, stealing
the blood of humans, steal their spirit also; and hence, quite=20
aside from any weird theories of inheritance, their acquisition of
intelligence.

> The ability of the inhumi to pass as human is in part related to a
> sort of psychic camouflage;=20

That's clearly true at least on one level (Krait's statement that=20
humans see what they expect seems, to me at least, disingenuous).
Also I would guess that there is a certain amount of "they look=20
human because they have human spirit." We also know (from Fava)=20
that the personality and physiognomy of an inhum[u|a] is at least=20
partially conditioned by who-or-what s/he has most recently dined=20
on, whether this be "psychic" or what.

> regarding The Secret:  it seems clear that blood passes on=20
> intelligence to offspring.  This makes me curious about Patera=20
> Quetzal . . . did one of his parents encounter humans prior to
> the Whorl's visit? =20

Not necessarily -- we aren't very clear on how long ago (the=20
last) Neighbors left, but there are some implications that it=20
wasn't _that_ long ago; and we know that the Neighbors visited
the _Whorl_ and brought inhumi with them. Suppose, then, that
Quetzal originally has intelligence, not from humans, but from
Neighbors. Then Quetzal, arriving with the Neighborly "expedition,"=20
meets & drinks of at least one human, and so gains some amount of=20
human personality & appearance.

--Blattid

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