Neighborly transmigration and other observations

maa32 · 04 Jan 2002, 18:17 · from whorl-v0013.mbox · original
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From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Subject: Neighborly transmigration and other observations
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002 11:17:04 -0700
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In response to my theory that Horn is in Babbie, Nutria wrote

>The rest of your post is interesting, and you may be right, but at present=20
I'm more inclined to think this was
        a Neighbor calling to Horn as a "baby." I don't see evidence that H=
orn=20
can "transmigrate his soul" in any
        way apart from Neighborly help. Maybe I'm forgetting something.=20
Doesn't he only have such astral
        visitations and transportations when in contact with a Neighbor or =
a=20
Neighborly artifact (such as an
        inhumu)?
>
Well, it seems to me that you answer your own objection, there.  If a Neigh=
bor=20
is calling to him as Babbie, then he IS around a Neighbor or one of their=20
artifacts, especially if he lays his head upon their knee. =20
How else can you read that whole part about the hus being more human than=20
scylla in the astral part, and his special treatment of Hoof?  Come on, adm=
it=20
that I'm right, just this once.  Remember the dream that Hide had of a doll=20
searching for him? he hides under a couch with eight (or ten) legs.  There =
is=20
a two legged soul in the hus, and I'm pretty sure it is, by the end of the=20
book, Horn.  Also, look at the prophecy of Marble: the last thing for Horn =
is=20
riding a beast with three horns, after wealth and command.  He had wealth a=
nd=20
command in Gaon, then he winds up in Babbie.  I really think it fits pretty=20
good, and I also think that Brother, Sister, and Cugino (cousin) are all=20
somehow related and somehow involved with the vanished people.  Cousin cuts=20
his the narrator's staff out of a liana vine, and the vanished people are=20
usually associated with trees.  If you don't believe me, re-read chapter 17=
 of=20
Return to the Whorl (narrated by Hoof): He took me with him.  Look at all t=
his=20
great evidence for all my theories in that chapter (I shall only quote from=20
that chapter now, I think it is a very important one):

on the ring that should be with Sinew unless Sinew (or Auk and Chenille)=20
returned to Blue with it and Oreb stole it:
"This was given me by a woman I called Seawrack."
"I held it up to my eye.  The weather was cool and clear, the wind northeas=
t.=20
.. I noticed the limb of a tree floating upright to starboard.  The leaves=20
were still silver and green, and the limb was so big it looked like a whole=20
tree even though I would think there must have been a trunk floating the=20
regular way since a floating tree does not stick up like that.  There was=20
somebody sitting in one of the branches, and it was one of the Vanished=20
People."  The vanished people sit on those trees like the vines do.
Later Hoof says, "There must be a word for the time when we see something w=
e=20
have seen before turn out to be something else, like when a stick is a snak=
e=20
without moving."  The narrator's stick is one of those liana vines, and the=
re=20
is some kind of connection between the sentient vegetation on green and the=20
vanished people.  I am inclined to believe that the inhumi are descended fr=
om=20
an engineered vegetation meant to adapt to its environment and assuming the=20
qualities of animals as it fed from them, and people as it fed from them.

And since I am quoting from that chapter, let's look at how Hide talks abou=
t=20
Lune (if you absolutely despise this Green as Lune of the future then you=20
might want to just stop reading my post here, because I am going to put a=20
bunch of quotes together that you may or may not see any connection in, but=
 I=20
think it's interesting. I myself, as I said, am just fooling with ideas and=20
don't take this particular assertion as seriously as I take the Horn as Bab=
bie=20
one):
"Green came up, bigger and brighter than we ever see it on blue."
Hoof talks about making an anchor.  An anchor keeps you in one place.  When=20
they journey to the red sun whorl, they go from one boat to another, from=20
shore to shore:  the environment has to resemble the one they leave from, b=
ut=20
this is not the case in most of the other astral journeys that have occured.
He talks about how the difference between the Red Sun Whorl and Blue was "i=
n=20
the wind" and the water, which had much more salt in it.  He repeats severa=
l=20
times that the water is much saltier on Urth.  "It was like our sea, and it=20
was not.  If you wanted to look for what was the same, there was a lot.  Bu=
t=20
if you wanted to look for what was different, there was a lot too.  The sme=
ll=20
was different.  The color was not the same, either, but it was hard to say=20
just what was changed.  That may have been the dark sky, mostly, and the=20
stars.  This sea knew night was cming, when everything would die.  There wa=
s=20
more foam, and I think this Red Sun Sea had more salt in it."
Why does he keep saying it is more salty?  We all know that if the polar ic=
e=20
caps melted, the sea would rise and the salt would be diluted.  If the sun'=
s=20
gravitational pull were increased, it could also disturb the orbit of Lune =
and=20
pull it out.  The color would change with a rejuvanted sun.  And that whole=20
thing about Seawrack talking about a huge wall underwater is just bizarre. =20
All these changes can be eliminated by the coming of a new sun. =20
If we read the conclusion of the Book of the Short Sun in light of the=20
importance of communicating with the Red Sun Whorl Scylla to learn from Scy=
lla=20
(the mother)
how to get to Seawrack, I think it infuses something of the importance of=20
keeping an eye on Seawrack and the mother to the entire text.  After they=20
return to Blue, Hoof notes:
"Out on the water there were the stars and quite a bit of light from Green;=20
for nighttime it was really pretty bright, but there was sort of a shadow=20
between the side and the water.  Green was halfway up over to starboard.  S=
o=20
to port there was this sadow, and I fel like she was down there, watching a=
nd=20
listening, adn she could make the bird talk for her when she wanted to."=20
Greater Scylla is on the Short Sun whorl as well as on the Red Sun Whorl.  =
On=20
the vanished people, Hoof has a very interesting thing to say while he=20
considers Nessus:
"So it was all so big that when I looked at it, it was hard to breathe.=20
...Finally I shut my eyes and would not look at it anymore.  I had seen the=20
way things really are, and I knew it.  I knew that I was going to have to=20
forget it as much as I could if I wanted to go onliving.  After Father left=
 I=20
was still curious about the Vanished People, and I asked a man I met one ti=
me=20
about them because he seemed like somebody who might know something.  He sa=
id=20
there were things that we are not supposed to know.  I think he was wrong, =
but=20
right, too.  I do not thik that there is anything about the Vanished People=20
that we should not know, just a whole lot that we do not.  but the way thin=
gs=20
really are is something that we cannot deal with.  I had to shut my eyes, a=
nd=20
if you had been there you would have had to shur yours, too."  What do the=20
Vanished People have to do with the soon to be submerged city of Nessus?  A=
nd=20
here are all my time references: In on Blue's Water, the mother sings a son=
g=20
of time.  In In Green's Jungles, the narrator says his astral travel is a=20
dream in his mind.  In Return to the whorl the narrator says the only way t=
o=20
go back in time is through dreams.  Hoof observes "It's been three hundred=20
years."  Father says, "It's been much longer than that" (of course I am awa=
re=20
of the light speed time distortion)
and in Chapter 19 in Return to the Whorl Hoof says "Father stopped talking,=20
and it seemed to me that he had stopped a long time ago someplace a long wa=
y=20
from where I was."  There are a lot of clues that suggest that Blue and Gre=
en=20
are the same, including blatantly calling Lune Green and that fact about a=20
huge wall of the vanished people, who are also called "The people of that=20
Town".  Why can't we handle the truth about the vanished people, as Hoof pu=
ts=20
it?  Is it something about ourselves (humanity, in any case)?  I really don=
't=20
care so much about this Blue/Green \Ushas/Lune thing at all, but I do care=20
about the big symbols: the wind, vines and the narrators staff that might w=
alk=20
and talk, and the fate of Horn's soul --> re-read chapter 17 and 19 of Retu=
rn=20
to the Whorl, and you must face up to the fact that Horn is in Babbie.
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