Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 17:25:55 -0600
From: James Jordan 
Subject: Re: (urth) Quetzal On Urth?

At 01:30 PM 11/25/2002, you wrote:
>matthew.malthouse@guardian.co.uk wrote:
>
> > On 25/11/2002 18:02:17 cilluff1 wrote:
> >
> >> other words, if the inhumi can travel to Urth (as has been
> >> suggested off Quetzal) then they've *got* to do that
> >> We would hear stories of them them on Urth, see one
> >> flying in the distance, observe people who don't eat,
> >> can't run, and lick their chops when someone mentions
> >> blood.  Something.  Some indication.  But there's
> >> nothing.  No indication whatsoever that any of the
> >> inhumi have ever been on Urth.

         I would be kind of weirded out to discover that Gene Wolfe had 
already thought up the whole Long Sun and New Sun and inhumi businesses at 
the time he wrote New Sun. I mean, gimmeabreak! It's a bit much to ask to 
find inhumi in the New Sun quartet/quintet.
         But I think your argument is sound. Once Wolfe came up with the 
Long Sun and the inhumi, if he were going to put Quetzal on Urth during the 
time Typhon was abuilding his ark, there'd be some allusion that would 
point in that direction. Where is it? Nowhere that has been found.
         And there is a perfect place for such a revelation: when Silk 
travels to Urth in the days of Severian's childhood. Plenty of opportunity 
for Wolfe to add in an inhumi attack or some other hint of Urthly inhumi. 
But he doesn't.
         And hey, Allah is just the arabic word for "God." Christians in 
Arab lands call God "Allah." It's the arabic form of "El" or "Elohim" found 
in the Hebrew Bible. "Allah" was doubtless a word for God found in some of 
the other cities, and Quetzal chooses to use it. Maybe even found in the 
Chrasmological Writings, since they were cobbled from all over the place. 
No need to think Quetzal had to have been on Urth to pick up this word.
         As for how Quetzal got on Starcrosser, we are TOLD that Neighbors 
seeded the ship with inhumi. Lacking any other indication, surely that's 
what we are to understand about how Quetzal got there. How he rose to such 
preeminence in the "church" is another question, and has been discussed 
here. (Hey, a very thin, wizened "man," an "ascetic," might be just the 
kind of "man" to catch the eye of "church" superiors and be promoted 
rapidly. Add to this Quetzal's cunning, and the clearly corrupt nature of 
the "church," and you have all you need to imagine a rapid rise to eminence.)
         Wolfe says that if a gun appears in the first act, it has to be 
fired later on. Clearly the reverse is also true. If Quetzal was on 
Starcrosser from the beginning, then there is going to be something to 
indicate this. Nothing proffered thus far fits the bill.

Nutria


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