From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) [blue] Inhumic morality and dwellers in the deep
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 15:50:10 

Dan Rabin asked:
>Morally repugnant to whom?  My interpretation of Krait's "cattle" metaphor
>and his comment "I must eat" is that the inhumi's drinking of blood is as
>matter-of-fact to them as eating fish is to Horn.  When leatherskins kill
>humans, are they being immoral?
<snippage>
>Or maybe inhumi aren't moral agents at all.

	The last is possible, but with Wolfe I think it's always best to
assume everything that looks intelligent and capable of willed action IS a
moral agent.  Wolfe seems to have a pretty broad definition of human (Horn,
at least, goes on about this at some length in OBW)--Jonas, Dr. Talos, sort
of Babbie, etc.  After all, the moral framework Wolfe's presumably working in
doesn't mean that just because the inhumi say "they're cattle--who cares?"
they're _right_ about it.  I think the inhumi are clearly more likely to be
moral agents than leatherskins.  Anyway, the inhumi seem (A) capable of being
a bit gleefully cruel--Jahlee and Krait show this at times, a kind of awareness
of villainy that's at the least a parody of moral agency and (B) capable of
acting quite in-inhuman--how do we explain Krait's actions on the lander (not
that we know exactly what happens yet) otherwise?  At least for now I'm giving
Krait the benefit of the doubt--he betrayed his kind for Horn, which was (so
it appears now) a good act.

It seems we're saying that Seawrack may be like an adopted Undine.  The more I 
look at those sections (and the telling bit in the Dramatis Personae), the more
I think "Mom" is an Erebus/Abaia type thing (whatever they are) and clearly Up
To No Good, although maybe resulting in good--BOT<N,L,S>S all evince Wolfe's
statement that (in the story of St. Brendan in PEACE, this quote is inexact)
"the wicked do God's will also, they just don't like it."


"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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