From: "Mitchell A. Bailey" <MAB@lindau.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Easter stuff
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 1999 20:06:47 

Mitchell A. Bailey wrote:
... What the Old Wise One actually says is "'We had no names before men
me
> > out of the sky... We were mostly long, and lived in holes between the
> > roots of trees.'" My point being, the Shadow Children remember
> > -themselves- as being this indigenous, primitive lifeform.
> >
> > The Old Wise One is, of course, an unreliable narrator. Earlier he
> > speaks of the Shadow Children as the space travellers, and Sandwalker's
> > people as the indigenous shape-changers, which ties into your
> > "Atlantean" interpretation. -But-, he later takes this back. ...
> The explaination I would offer is basec on the fact that, as you say,
> the Old Wise One at the time this remark was made was being generated by
> one lone Shadow Child, Sandwalker, and a tenuous contribution from every
> other Shadow Child band on St. Anne. Sandwalker's alien contribution in
> particular probably confused the Old Wise One. Contrast this with the
> Old Wise One's manner when the Shadow Child band was intact earlier, at
> which time he was more knowledgable and confident of his viewpoint and
> beliefs.
> 
> ...

Guess I better own up to a goof: when the OWO makes that statement there
are still three Shadow Children of that band remaining with Sandwalker.

I don't think that cripples my point, tho. 

Let me hasten to point out that the band had suffered defeat and
capture, probably pretty traumatic considering their inflated and
fragile egos. Then by this point, it had just lost two of its number to
violence, this violence and this loss being felt all the more acutely
because every Shadow Child was part of a telepathic mental continuum and
probably the pain of one was shared by all. 

And Sandwalker still made up 1/4 of that telepathic community
(neglecting the attenuated contact with other Shadow Children bands). 

So I still think the OWO was in a somewhat stressed and disoriented
state compared with the earlier scene where Sandwalker was initiated a
Shadowfriend.


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