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From: Jim Jordan <jbjordan@gnt.net> Subject: Re: (whorl) Horn's Hints Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 11:00:34 At 03:15 PM 10/5/99 -0400, you wrote: > >I think the foregoing fits pretty well with the theory that it is only by >drinking the blood of intelligent creatures that the inhumi established and >maintain their own intelligence. In addition, the inhumi may get their attitude >from humans as well -- that is, they are monsters because we are monsters. > >If that is the secret, then we have a certain nice symmetry with parts of the >Christian worldview. That is, we are threatened by evil, but the evil comes >from ourselves. If we protected each other from it, it would disappear. In >short, we should all follow the Golden Rule. I won't speculate on how this would >fit with Catholic (or any other) theology, but it seems like too good a match. > >This story is, first and foremost, about love. Not love as in sex or lust >(though that's there, too), but love between father and son, son and father, >husband and wife, even between pet and master. The secret of the inhumi is that >love will protect us from them. > > --- Dave Lebling > (aka vizcacha) Well, that's what I was going to write, having finished the book last night and reading the posts today, but you beat me to it. Completely agree. I think we have all we need to know the secret now. Remember also that Wolfe discusses devils/fallen-angels in other stories, and calls them servants of God who are used to chastise/punish people. The inhumi have the same role here. It might be useful to consider how exorcisms are done, both those in the Gospels and in Acts, and the Roman Catholic rite. Nutria *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