From: "David Lebling" <dlebling@ucentric.com>
Subject: (whorl) Pigs have no wings, but might be gods
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 02:13:54 

<<From: "Patrick O'Leary" <poleary@cecom.com>
Pig as Godling:
Yes, the reference to "ears" and "claws" is probably the best  evidence I've
seen.
Good fishing! Yet, for me, it still doesn't ring true. I guess I'd believe
it if
I saw Pig fulfilling the function of a godling--for aren't they just
clarions
for the gods of mainframe? "Leave the Whorl!" or "Stay on The whorl!"
It's not a question of size. >>

Pig's mercenary troop was being used to drive people from the Whorl. He says
so explicitly. (Don't have the book handy here at work, so no page ref).
This qualifies as "Leave the Whorl!" Also, remember that the Pig we see is
Pig/Silk, and his behavior is rather different than the inaugmented Pig's.

Having met only one for-certain godling, how do we know what the rest are
like? Some of them are clearly aggressive: witness the statement the farmer
(or his wife?) makes about Horn's wounds, that they might have been made by
a (small) godling. The godling we meet later is more-or-less friendly, not
all are such.

In fact, spinning this into more of an idea, what if Horn/Silk's wounds were
made by a godling? I brought this idea up before but didn't have any idea
for a motive. It occurs to me that if a godling commanded Silk to preach the
end of the exodus, he might well have refused, even to the point of
violence. A thin reed to build a theory on, I know...

    Dave Lebling
    aka vizcacha


*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