From: "Tom Foster" 
Subject: Re: (urth) An IGJ question
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 09:08:51 -0000

Thanks Rostrum for an extremely informative and helpful post.

Here's one of the other main things that's been puzzling me: why does the
narrator of OBW/IGJ not need to eat very much?  This crops up fairly
frequently, particularly in the latter parts of IGJ but is never explained,
at least as far as I noticed.  One example of this that really stood out to
me occurs in the chapter 'Why are the inhumi like us?'  On pp344 the
narrator tells Hide that one way of identifying an inhumi is to be wary "of
anyone who appears not to eat, or to eat very little". Only a few pages
earlier Hide had said to the narrator, "You don't eat much. While I've been
with you, you've hardly eaten at all". The narrator replies "I eat far too
much. I try constantly - perhaps I should say I try to try constantly - to
keep it in check". There are many examples of the narrator saying similar
things in both books and it seems very odd. If Hide were to follow his
father's advice then he should be wary of his father surely!  Is the
narrator fasting, is it something to do with the Silk/Horn transmigration,
or is this something that is explained in RTTW?

I also thought that the meeting on Green with Chenille and Auk (and later
Sinew?) could have been described in a bit more detail to say the least. I
know Wolfe likes to be obtuse (and I love him for it), but I had been
waiting throughout the first two books for a meeting with these two
characters, and next to nothing is explained.

The more I think about the New/Long/Short Sun books, the more I think of
things that puzzle me! That's certainly one of the best things about Wolfe,
but it would be nice if I came away from them feeling that I had understood
even a fraction of what he is getting at!  I'm starting to feel that when I
finish RTTW I'll have to go back and read the New Sun books for the forth
time...


Tom


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