From: "James Wynn" 
Subject: RE: RE: (urth) Crush's Page and Quetzal
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 10:15:12 -0500

After checking my sources, here's my response to Robert Borski's questions
(thanks again Mr. Borski):
Robert Borski  said

According to you she's a chem. So does this mean that she fabricated the
story about her father being a head clerk at the Juzgado?  (Newt by my
reckoning.)  And again, is she lying (or implanted with false memories) when
she tells Auk that her father is a "pig's arse"?

My response:
No and no. Actually Silk says that he went to meet him. I sure her father is
NOT Newt. Newt is a commissioner at the Juzgado in charge of the Guard
finances. Hyacinth's father is a "head clerk" of the Fisc. Silk also met
with an "officer" of the Fisc while he was there. Clearly her father is well
down the chain of command. BTW: see the entry on Newt in "Things of the Long
Sun".

There's no reason that her father could not be a chemical person. And as
Silk discovered in Nightside, a talus can be bribed. What would a talus do
with money? Marble explains in Exodus, "The same thing anyone would do with
money, dear" So chems are not essentially different from bios when it comes
to corrupt conduct. Is it so amazing that a chem parent would prostitute his
child for money when bios sometimes do it?

Actually, the well-flagged concept that chems and taluses can be corrupted
for money is sitting around in the story like an unfired gun in a play. I've
fired it by tapping Hyacinth and her father as examples.

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Robert Borski  said
And who is the woman described as her dead mother that Hyacinth sees at
Mainframe?  Nettle seems to know her (I've theorized elsewhere she's Lime)

My response:
The woman was Hyacinth's mother. It is easier for me to imagine how chems
would "go to Mainframe" when they die than it is for me to see how it is
done with bios. As for Nettle knowing her that's an interesting question,
but unless her mother can be clearly identified with a bio female it doesn't
change anything. I'm curious about your "Lime" theory. I don't find it
explained in the Urth archives. In the archives I DID see you make a
reference to a snide comment by Wolfe regarding Hyacinth's mother in a "LS
question list" - what is this?

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Robert Borski  said
Simply put, are there really that many chems running around outside the
military and the religious orders, and are they as prone and subject to
toxic parenting as your average bios?

My response:
Well there's not that many chems running around outside the military --
relatively. Marble is the only one I'm aware of in a religious order.
Non-military chems are rare relative to when the Whorl left Urth, but they
are not non-existent. No adults in Viron remarks on chems as if they'd never
seen one before. I suppose if you or I were to walk the streets of Viron, we
would no doubt think we saw chems everywhere we looked.

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Robert Borski  said
Since you're speculating about someone whose life history does not end with
SHORT SUN, you also need to read Wolfe's follow-up series because there's an
event in there that makes your theory even less tenable. I won't spoil it
for you; suffice it to say I don't think rust is the causative agent.


I cannot express the pleasure I get from these e-mails.

 -- Crush




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