From: Patri10629@aol.com
Subject: Re: (whorl) [Blue notes, spoilers, etc.]
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 08:43:32 EDT


In a message dated 10/3/99 11:41:23 PM, mantis@sirius.com writes:

<< 
The letter of summons to the lander reminds me quite strongly of the Letter
from Prestor John to the Pope.  And as in that case, there is much
speculation on where the kingdom is located--it has =moved= over the
centuries! >>

It struck me on rereading the opening letter that it is a tissue of lies. But 
we know that. Imagine it is the words of the Inhumi--throwing their voices, 
as it were, through their human agents-- and it becomes an entirely different
message altogether. Very creepy.

It also struck me that the initial meeting with the Leaders of the Community 
was a bit awkward.  A clumsy plot device to get the quest rolling. "We need a 
a god--get Silk. We need better seed--back to the whorl. Our businesses are 
failing, our crops, too--our society is disintegrating, decadent--we need a 
moral center that everyone can agree on. We need Silk. We need 'fresh 
blood.'" 

But then there was that unspoken agenda which Nettle intuited--"They don't 
want us to write anymore." Not sure I get that. We're the Powers that 
be--secular and sacred: Business, Church, Law (not sure about that 
one)--conspiring to consolidate their earthly power by removing their one 
true legitimate rival--the man who wrote their history? Whose only authority 
was the fact that he tried to tell the truth? And had the means to do 
so--paper? Or are one or more of this group Inhumi collaborators?

Interesting that Horn's most valuable commodity--paper--is stolen almost 
immediately. He must rely on other resources.

How like TBOTLS--short-sighted agendas which ultimately are futile. As Horn 
says from the begining--he failed.

Some of many questions. Amazing that this fragment, this first installment 
can be so powerful and so incomplete.

best

Patrick O'Leary

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com