From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy@siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) The Secret: protection, not conversion (actual
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 13:35:38 

Adam wrote: 

> I have to abandon my nice new theory on the Secret.  I just
> noticed that on p. 350 of the hardback OBW, Horn says: "If
> only we protected one another, they would all be idiots or
> worse.  As it is, they always get enough to keep them going." 
> So it has to be boring old keep-everybody-safe, not the idea
> that the inhumi will become good by drinking the blood of 
> good people, attractive though this is.  

Good catch, good call. I'm afraid I also have to abandon my own 
theorizing about a grand communion of humans and human-inhumi, in 
favor of what you say; in which case the "grand communion" becomes
a blasphemous parody of the Eucharist ... which makes sense. 
Neither of the Eucharistic scenes we're shown involve the inhumi
in any way, and neither involve physical blood. (I am using the
word "physical" to avoid a whole set of metaphysical [in the sense
of Aristotle and Aquinas] issues about in what sense the Eucharistic 
species "are" the flesh & blood of Christ, which I presume are not 
of general interest.)

So we're back to "protect one another?" H'mm... Okay, if Silk is
a Moses-figure (which makes far more sense than a Christ-figure),
then we're talking about a people living under Law and Justice 
rather than (explicit) Grace. "Protect one another," and especially
the idea of protecting the poor (and, somewhat by implication, the
idea of protecting the "stranger") fits.

--Dan'l


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