From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy@siebel.com>
Subject: (whorl) Crocagators
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 12:58:00 

The Kitchen Staff Wombat wrote:

> My understanding is that the number of human attacks from
> crocodilians is very low. They're much like wolves that 
> way--feared as human predators all out of proportion to the
> actual danger they present. Which isn't to say that they
> can't sometimes be very dangerous, indeed. 

Which was pretty much my point. Assuming per argumentam the
"Golden Rule" theory of the Secret, _and_ that the human
colonists somehow manage to implement it, then the inhumi 
become "something we can live with," either as benevolent 
sentients or as dangerous but mindless giant leeches.

In fact, there's some doubt in my mind as to how many 
people are actually killed by the inhumi in the situation 
which actually holds on Blue at the time of Horn's journey
-- I don't recall many examples of someone actually dying 
from inhumi attacks [excepting the attack on the wedding,
as a very special special case]. Do the inhumi, like wolves, 
bears, sharks, snakes, crocodilians... suffer from 
exaggerated human fears as to the extent of the danger they
pose?

I somewhat doubt it, on the grounds that the inhumi (at
least in the form we know) are far smarter than wolves,
bears, etc., and able to "pass" as humans: a combination 
that makes one inhumu potentially far more dangerous in 
the long term than a good-sized pack of wolves. But the
Bluvian scenes in SHORT simply don't seem to reflect a
people in imminent danger of being wiped out by predators.

I dunno. There's _something_ weird missing here, what it 
is ain't exactly clear...

--Blattid


*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