Wolfe's AnswersWhorl

A great mixture of bland revelation and sneaky evasion, I must say! [Mantis, having recently reread The Fifth Head of Cerberus, I must report the discovery that Wolfe was calling interstellar ships "starcrossers" long before I was. No doubt David Hartwell was trying to come up with an "Ace Double" title that Wolfe might find acceptable.] To me, the most interesting revelations are that Pike was Blood's father, and that Pike's ghost was not an aquastor ("not machine made"). Another answer that begins to itch a little is the one about valleys casting shadows. I wonder if Wolfe is telling us that the Long Sun doesn't work in quite the way we have theorized. For example, suppose that the shade is actually pulses of darkness that move along the sun's length, rather than a dark segment that covers part of its circumference? I find it suggestive in this regard that the poles of the whorl are east and west. If the sun originates in the east (Mainframe) and terminates in the west, we have a very earthlike sunrise/sunset. It would also explain how we can have true darkness on the whorl. Can anyone find any textual support for this idea? (Admittedly, the use of the terms "shadelow" and "shadeup" seem to argue pretty forcefully against it, but it's worth a look.) I'm pleased to see that some of my opinions are supported, as well. In particular I'm happy to see that Mint is Mint, Typhon is Typhon, and Quetzal is Quetzal, if you know what I mean. It's also nice that Wolfe confirmed that Oreb is a night chough! One certainty to hang onto, at least! --vizcacha (david_lebling at avid.com)

In Exodus, when the group is at Mainframe, it is revealed that the shade is some substance that is created at mainframe, shot out across the sun, and then evaporates. So you're "pulses of darkness" is just about right on. If you think about it, the only way you can have much darkness at all is if the entire sun is blocked or turned off at the same time. Otherwise you'd have an effect like one of those halogen lamps that you point toward the ceiling to light an entire room. And the way darkness is described, I got the impression of seeing the lights of cities at night (like when we fly over cities at night on Earth), not an entire hemi-cylinder of lit Whorl filling the night sky. -Rostrum