Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 15:12:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Michael Straight 
Subject: Re: (urth) hybrids/ green mankiller/Sinew

On Fri, 1 Feb 2002, maa32 wrote:

> It was very astutely noted by Rostrum (sorry if I got that wrong - a very long 
> digest) that hybrids are the key, not plant genetics.  Of course, that is also 
> what I am saying - hybridization between tree and man allows Blue to be Ushas.
>  Horn's son cannot see the connection between where they are right now and 
> hybridization, but Horn says it has everything to do with where they are now.

Wolfe has other symbolic things going on, but what Horn is saying is that
they can only go so far with derivative technology (like the hybrid corn
seed).  They are trying to use tech that is twice removed from the
original planet it was developed on (Urth-->Whorl-->Blue) and it's not
working.  The hybrid corn is just the most obvious example.  They need to
go back to the Whorl to try to recover more technology (agricultural and
otherwise) that is closer to the source.

Horn's point is that in order to get closer to the original, you have to
leave Blue and go back to the Whorl, which is the opposite of the
significance you're trying to read into it.

(I still don't buy the plant/human hybrid theory, nor the Blue=Urth
theory, but you have brought up some interesting details and possible
connections.)

> On another note, did anybody ever get the feeling that Horn hates Sinew so 
> much because he was somehow responsible for killing Krait?  Remember Inclito's 
> story about brother killing brother ... the death of Krait is still sketchy 
> for me.  How was he wounded?  Even Horn's death (on green) is still odd.

It's implied that Krait was wounded in fighting with the humans against
the inhumi and their slaves.  Horn says in IGJ that Sinew and the others
refused to go back for Krait and were in the process of leaving the
wounded Horn on his own and that Horn had to struggle to return for Krait
(Horn didn't know it was Krait, or wasn't admiting it to himself, although
he had noticed there was one too many people among them).

But unless the narrator is seriously skewing Horn's memories, Horn
(mistakenly) believed that Sinew hated him long before they went to Green.
If anything, I'd say that the fact we can so clearly read between the
lines and see that Sinew really loved Horn is because Silk can see what
Horn can't and is influencing the narrator's account.

-Rostrum


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