From: akt@attglobal.net
Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v011.n027
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:13:14 


Said William:

> Of course I eventually
> realized that the reason no one else had mentioned this idea before
> me was that everyone else had figured it out already and thought is
> was too obvious to mention.

Not so; we'd all been counting eyes, but you got there first.

Mr. Borski:

> Note the very last line from "The Night Chough" that I quote. In the
> original text the word "Scylla" is italicized. But it's what follows
that's
> important. "That was the bird. And not the bird." In other words, Oreb
is
> saying "Scylla," but it's actually Scylla (and not the bird) that's
> providing the information. My argument: that if you're a god and
you're
> using a bird for your mouthpiece, you're riding it.

This may well be true in "The Night Chough," which only you and mantis
seem to have read. But there's not a tweak of evidence for it in the
five books we have all read. Scylla has apparently been there (for the
story), done that and skedaddled.

> Mr. Ansley then writing:
>
> <It is *completely* certain to me that an eight-legged creature
one-third(?)
> the height of a man will look more like a cluster of (shorter than a
man)
> boys or two men on their hands and knees (short
> - because doubled over - and with eight leg-like - because of
position -
> limbs) than a Neighbor, who is as tall as or taller than a man and has
only
> four leg-like limbs (and, of course, four arm-like
> ones).>
>
> All right, just for the sake of argument, let's say you're right here.
The
> 8-legged thingie is merely some indigenous, but anonymous, member of
Blue's
> faunal kingdom. What possesses it to jump from the cliff to the sea?
If
> directed by Mucor, what has she done so? In other words what are we
make of
> this leap in a broader context? Also: when last seen, the eight-legged
> thingie has plunged into the water and disappeared very near to Horn's
boat.
> Just coincidentally, when Babbie first appears upon the scene some few
> hundred words later, it's also in the water very near to the boat. I
just
> think the simplest most elegant solution is to assume both are one and
the
> same. If I'm wrong, I still need to understand the 8-legged beastie's
> motivation for jumping--possibly even to its death, since according to
you
> (or at least I'm inferring this) we never see it again.
>
> Nice to have you back in the Devil's Advocate Position, William!

Oh, don't forget me, Robert! It's my favorite Position, and I think with
William that your tortured explanations are completely *unnecessary.*
The 8-legged thingie is Babbie, whom Mucor has sent to be Horn's
companion and guardian. That's why he jumps and swims. Why do you need
to drag Neighbors or some anonymous critter into what seems perfectly
obvious? It's the hus, the whole hus, nothing but the hus.

-alga


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