Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 10:54:29 -0600
From: "Charles Reed" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Quetzal in orbit

cilluff1@optonline.net wrote:

><<"'...Before Kypris manifested here on Scylsday, the Windows of our city 
>had been empty for decades.  I can't take credit for that, it wasn't my 
>doing.  But I've done everything in my power to prevent theophanies.  It 
>hasn't been much, but I've done what I could.  I proscribed human 
>sacrifice, and got it made law, for one thing.  I admit I'm proud of that.'"
>...>>>
>
>This is something that has puzzled me, although I have only just started
>reading Green so perhaps it becomes clear.  But, why did Quetzal try to
>prevent any more theophanies?
>

I think Quetzal wanted to prevent theophanies so that the populace 
wouldn't be informed that Pas was dead.  (Of course, this is exactly 
what happened when Echidna appeared at the Sun Street Manteion during 
Rose's funeral rites, even though very few people actually heard what 
she said.)  Quetzal wants the Plan of Pas carried out, and anything that 
could hinder that -- such as the other gods showing up in sacred windows 
and telling everybody that the Pas is dead -- is what he works against.

>  I have no real answer, or even theory, but
>only some musings that touch upon the subject.  Pas chose Blue and Green as
>the destinations for the Whorl -- clearly the Whorl didn't arrive there at
>random, and Pas (or Typhon, I should say) must have been familiar enough
>with them to know they would be habitable to humans.  
>

OK so far.

>Presumably, then, he
>knew about the inhumi as well, yet he still chose Blue and Green as
>destinations.
>

Not true.  Here are Gene Wolfe's own words, which you can find in volume 
6 of the Whorl archives:  "Typhon did not know about the inhumi [and] 
would have done everything possible to keep them out of the Whorl if he 
had."  And besides, even if he had known about the inhumi from his 
palaces on Urth, he would only have seen them as the beasts they were -- 
they could not have assumed human form until the Whorl, loaded with 
humans, actually arrived in their system and became food for them.

>  Why?  Was he "in cahoots" with the inhumi (and is that how
>Quetzal got on board the Whorl?)?  After all, Quetzal speaks fondly of Pas
>(the type of person who loves a bird so much he sets them free) but not so
>nicely about the other "gods" (they are the type who cage those they love).
>

Quetzal speaks fondly of Pas because he agrees with Pas's plan.  He 
wants the humans to come down to Green so that the other inhumi can be 
elevated above the bestial level they have been living at ever since the 
Neighbors departed.

>The other "gods" of the Whorl stymied Pas' Plan to bring humanity to Blue
>and Green for years, perhaps because they knew of the inhumi -- is this why
>they killed Pas, to prevent the delivery of humanity into the hands of the
>inhumi?
>

I don't think so.  I think Quetzal's assessment is accurate -- they cage 
what they love.  They also love being gods, and know they wouldn't be 
gods if there were no people aboard the Whorl to worship them.  It might 
be argued that they could have set themselves up as gods on Blue and 
Green as well, and I don't really have a could counter-argument for 
that, other than to guess that Pas kept his plans for transferring 
godhood planetside pretty close to the vest.  That is, they didn't know 
how.  Kind-of weak, I know, but it's the best I can come up with.

>and is it also why Quetzal made such efforts to prevent theophanies?
>

Again, I don't think so.  Quetzal wants the humans to go to Green.  He 
wants the Plan of Pas to succeed.  He wants the inhumi to become "human" 
like he has become "human" because as Horn notes on at least a couple of 
occasions in Short Sun books, without humanity the inhumu would be 
nothing more than mindless beasts.

Charles


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