Ask Gene Wolfe

Doug Eigsti · 15 May 1997, 22:10 · from whorl-v0005.mbox · original

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From: Doug Eigsti <d.eigsti at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: (whorl) Ask Gene Wolfe
Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 22:10:26 +0000
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[Posted from WHORL, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

mantis,

	It is a daunting proposition to boil down all the variables and=20
uncertainities from the Long Sun into just one question. The Whorl is=20
nearly as grand and unsearchable as our world, peopled with characters=20
toiling away in their quarter oblivious to the grand gambits of unseen=20
forces above. Part of the mystique of the series is the mystery. If I=20
know Gene Wolfe, never met him, he will not give away anything he=20
deems important in an answer to a direct question that he has evaded=20
in 1400 pages of fiction. Such things, it seems, are meant to be an=20
exercise for the reader. I almost feel guilty in hoping that his=20
answers are as elusive and diffuse, and delectible, as his text. I am=20
reminded of LeGuin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS where one must take=20
exacting care in drafting one's question else risk getting an=20
unexpected answer. None the less, the offer is irresistable. Here's=20
hopin':

	As has been lamented in these postings the publicized link between=20
the NEW SUN and LONG SUN turns out to be tenuous when all is said and=20
done, Typhon/Pas being the only common character. (Scylla seems only=20
to share the common name).=20
	My search for a more robust connection lead me to the story told to=20
Severian by Cyracia of the "race of ancient days [that] reached the=20
stars, and how they bargained away all the wild half of themselves to=20
do so, so they no longer cared for wind...love or lust...songs or any=20
other animal things they believed they had brought with them out of=20
the rain forests at the bottom of time-though in fact, so my uncle=20
told me, those things brought them." (SWORD, Ch.VI, p. 38, paperback).=20
These machines later tried to restore the "wild" thoughts to men, in=20
order to destroy them, by introducing "artifacts of every kind,=20
calculated by them to revive all those thoughts that people had put=20
behind them because they could not be written in numbers". (SWORD, Ch=20
VI, p.39, paperback).
	The necessity for having living cultures on the Whorl segregated in=20
city-states, isolated by topographical barriers fortified by Chem=20
armies programmed to be mutually hostile in order to dissuade an=20
organized revolt against Mainframe seems to be an overly complex means=20
of transport, considering that Typhon obviously had access to=20
"sleeper" technology (Mamelta). My question, in a roundabout way: Was=20
the live cargo of the Whorl only put on board to preserve the "wild"=20
half of mankind so the Typhon/Pas entity could establish a vital human=20
vassal state on the destination world, or did the Inhumi require the=20
"wild" parts to satisfy their blood lust? =20

=3DTalon=3D
aka Doug Eigsti

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