From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey@stic.net>
Subject: (urth) Hollow men
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 02:37:51 

    Okay, Tony Ellis and William Ansley, do not agree with me. Fine. I have
already cited the relevant textual quotes in my "Iron men" and "More on Iron
Men" posts, so there is no point it doing it again. I think we can all agree
that Jonas is/was an android that had been repaired with human parts? I hope
so, because that's what the text says. The only real arguments seem to be
over:

    (A) Are Jonas's metal parts hollow?
    (B) Relative sizes.

    (A) I have already given the citations from _Claw_ which suggest that
there is something unusual about Jonas's lightness. Sidero is an android.
Sidero is hollow. In chapter VIII of _Urth_ Sidero states how and why his
kind came to exist; as protective hard coverings with superhuman attributes
to be worn by the "mates". The mates come in all sizes, male and female. Sev
mentions *several* difficulties fitting himself inside Sidero (chapter IX),
but never mind that. The real point is that *one size does not fit all*. Two
"slender" androids are mentioned (their names, very likely, are Hadid and
Hierro, BTW). Now, given the fact that Sidero's kind have been in existence
long enough to have evolved human-like intelligence, it would be
unreasonable, unnecessary, and without textual support to think that there
was a second order of androids on the ship built any differently than what
we are told by Sidero. Slender compared to what? The two are standing with
Sidero "some distance apart from the rest of us". If Sidero is "massive",
two beings of average size might well look "slender" in comparison. The two
"slender" androids must be hollow, too. Sev saw only a small fraction of
Tzad's ship. There is no reason to suppose that there are not other
androids, in a variety of sizes, all over the ship.

    Jonas served on a space/time traveling ship. Sidero said: "There is only
one ship, the captain says. All the ships we hail between the galaxies or
the suns are this ship." Therefore, Jonas sailed on Tzad's ship. Jonas is an
android. Therefore, Jonas was originally hollow, regardless of which size
android he was.

    (B) See (A).

Roy



*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/