Lost in Space

Reusch · 13 Apr 1997, 09:16 · from whorl-v0004.mbox · original

This is the message as the crawl holds it, before anything here touched it. What the conversation shows has been through ingest: transfer encodings decoded, attachments dropped, quote markers repaired, and the archiver’s ? resolved into quotation marks and dashes. Those repairs are judgements and some of them are wrong, which is what this page is for. Email addresses are obscured here as they are everywhere else on the site, so it is before our repairs rather than byte for byte.

From: Reusch <newsun at freeway.net>
Subject: (whorl) Lost in Space
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 97 09:16:26
Message-ID: <whorl-v0004-0045 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

Like Mantis, a couple of my postings seem to have been lost in space, =3D
I'll try them again here, and offer my apologies if they appear twice.

Subject:     identity crisis
Sent:        4/11/97 8:54 AM
To:          Whorl forum, whorl at lists.best.com

Attention Mainframe! For some reason, I am no longer receiving =3D
messages from the Whorl. The last one was about a week ago. I've got =3D
a cat that I would love to sacrifice to you, if that would bring you =3D
back to my window.

Thanks for all of the responses to my questions. (I downloaded the =3D
archive to get them.) Vizcacha, I love the Rose as Echidna spin on =3D
her personality. It serves to further underscore the fact that NONE =3D
of the main characters in this book are who we (at first) think they =3D
are, or even who they think they are. But that brings me back to =3D
Pike; was he what he seemed? Silk "saw" that Pike was praying to the =3D
Outsider for help, and that he, Silk, was that help. Assuming that =3D
this is a true interpretation of a true vision, (and when dealing =3D
with Silk, that could be a dangerous assumption), why was Pike =3D
praying? For help, OK, but help for what? To save the manteion, Silk =3D
assumes. But what, in Pike's time, did the manteion need saving from? =3D
Tax collectors? Does a holy man pray for tax relief? And then get it? =3D
That seems pretty unlikely. And why did he pray to the outsider, =3D
instead of the gods of mainframe? Was he aware of their nature? =3D
Perhaps he was aware of Quetzal's nature, and was fighting against =3D
him? Perhaps he was working with Quetzal? Hmmm...

And yes, I agree with you that Rose is in effect a corpse. Was. Since =3D
a big chunk, if not all, of her memories and even personality get =3D
transferred to Marble via her "parts", it seems reasonable to assume =3D
that these are what was animating Rose, and not her brain.

As an aside, it seems unlikely that Horn would have any knowledge of =3D
that scene of Rose as Echidna kneeling before her daughter. Is this a =3D
contrived jab at a teacher that he didn't like? Especially since soon =3D
after this point Rose punishes Horn for imitating Silk.=20

About Silk's killing the bird on Blood's roof=3D8Byes, I'm aware of =3D
Silk's explanation of the bird "forgetting" that it couldn't fly, and =3D
falling to its death. It just seemed to me to be one of Silk's =3D
patented "all-too-quick-however-unlikely" assumptions. I was =3D
wondering if anyone had a more likely explanation. I guess that my =3D
thought was that it was further evidence of Silk's genetic super-hero =3D
abilities.
OK, Vance means fletcher (of arrows), so a natural choice for a =3D
pseudonym for myself would be some type of feather. Does anyone out =3D
there know anything about feathers? I don't. I'd like to use the name =3D
Ma'at, but that's a bit presumptuous, I suppose.=20
May every god favor you
Vance

Subject:     thank you, my son
Sent:        4/11/97 10:56 PM
To:          Whorl forum, whorl at lists.best.com

Well, my prayer to mainframe in my last message was granted, I am =3D
once again receiving. Thank you. Now, what about that Urth mailing =3D
list? I haven't heard anything from it yet, and I subscribed soon =3D
after it went up.
Mantis,
I just received your response to my initial questions. I like your =3D
Pike-Quetzal explanation. It follows pretty closely with what I had =3D
been thinking. Although I didn't mean to imply that what Silk saw was =3D
an "actual" ghost, I'm not sure of what it was. I'm warm to the =3D
aquastor theory, but not sold on it, unless what mainframe produces =3D
for people to see their deceased loved ones are aquastors.  That =3D
would make it more likely, at least to me.
Thanks for the response, and I'm anxiously awaiting my copy of your =3D
Q&D Guide!

Vance

Well, there it is. And yes, I am now receiving both lists, thank you.

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