From: mark millman <millman@us.ncipher.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Crocagators
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 11:25:25 

At 08:48 AM 26-04-01 -0700, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

> Mark Millman wrote:
>
>> At the risk of being obvious, 
>> allow me to point out that,
>> unlike the inhumi, wolves, 
>> bears, sharks, snakes, croco-
>> dilians, and the like do not 
>> preferentially target humans 
>> as their prey.  
>
> At the risk of being contentious, let me observe that only 
> the sentient inhumi do so. But in the universe-of-discourse 
> where humans have come to "love one another," the sen-
> tient inhumi will very specifically _not_ target humans; 
> and the non-sentient inhumi, well, won't.
>
> [snip]
>
>> Also, as I recall (and I'm 
>> afraid that I don't have the 
>> book here for reference, 
>> so we'll have to depend on 
>> my recollection), Fava had 
>> to be very careful not to 
>> kill Salica when she fed from
>> the old woman.  
>
> My recollection also.
>
>> If Fava hadn't been living 
>> with the family at the time, 
>> she very likely would have 
>> been less careful.  
>
> Are you sure? I'm not. Again, death-by-inhumi-attack 
> seems to be _exceedingly_ rare.
>
> --Dan'l


Contention welcomed, Dan'l.  It's true that only the sentient inhumi 
specifically target humans; but then it's equally true that these are ex-
actly the inhumi that the human population of Blue fears; and I'd 
be surprised if there were many non-sentient inhumi loose on Blue.  
The sentient inhumi are as much a source of fear as the (much less 
common) man-eating shark or tiger or wolf-pack is on Earth, and 
are the ones that humans would have to bring themselves to accept 
in an agape-driven world (though the entire humanization-of-the-
inhumi-by-voluntary-blood-donation scenario is now discredited).

You are right to say that we hardly hear of any deaths from the 
inhumi's depredations in Short Sun (and of course this has now 
been discussed at greater length on the list), but there are examples 
in which victims have been left in a very bad way indeed.  Kevin 
Maroney mentions Teazel in Long Sun, and I recall that General 
Oosik's son (is his name Muktuk?--again, I don't have the book for 
reference) is drained so badly that he loses consciousness, leaving 
him so weak that he cannot stand.  These attacks may not be char-
acteristic of the situation on Blue, but do demonstrate that inhumi 
can probably kill if they're so minded (or if they misjudge, etc.).  
Blue is also a colony world, and there seem to be enough dangers 
aside from the inhumi that one probably wouldn't want to go 
around in a condition of chronic weakness from blood loss.

Mark

*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