From: David Lomax <dlomax@idirect.com>
Subject: (whorl) OBW:  Yet another Inhumi secret theory
Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2000 18:24:00 

All,

Pardon for going back to a dead horse, stick in hand, but I just got around to
reading OBW (in preparation for  the next which I believe is coming out soon).
Immediately, I went and read a whole bunch of old posts from this list which I had
been saving for the occasion.  I'm fascinated with the quest for the Inhumi secret
(which I acknowledge may be unknowable given our present information).  Like most
of you folks, I had rejected the "can't we all just get along" hypothesis and many
of the other likely candidates.  One I haven't seen suggested (perhaps because I
haven't read _all_ the old posts) has to do with giving.

Giving, people giving themselves to others, seems an important theme for Wolfe.
What if the secret went something like this:  if people were to willingly give
themselves over to the Inhumi, then (1) the Inhumi wouldn't be able to kill the
people (much as Krait doesn't kill Horn or Horn's people once Horn has properly
given his word) and (2) the Inhumi would, for some reason, no longer drink
sentience along with the blood.

This is not a satisfying theory, mostly because it seems too simplistic, but I
thought it might spark of someone else's ideas.  If it's a repetition of stuff
that's already been said, my apologies.

David Lomax


*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