From: "Alice Turner" <al@interport.net>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v001.n050
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 05:17:02 


[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]


vizcacha-

Munch, munch...that's crow I'm eating, not night-chough. But I have to
retort, weakly.

> On the gods being active before Mamelta's repairs (_Calde_, p.156):
> 
> [Quetzal explaining to Silk:] "I'm in contact with religious leaders in
> Urbs, Wick, and other cities, cities where his children have boasted of
> killing Pas." ... "Echidna was at the center. ... Scylla, Molpe, and
> Hierax were in it. They've said so at various times."

It's possible, from the way this is phrased, that this boasting took place
25 (say) years ago, after they "killed" Pas but before they themselves were
deactivated. 

> On Sphigx speaking to the Trivigauntis (_Exodus_, p. 182):
> 
> [Siyuf at the dinner party:] "A god speaks to us, also. Sublime Sphigx
> cares more for us than any other city. She alone of the gods speaks to
> us in our ancient tongue, speaking as we did in my mother's house, and
> as we speak in mine."

I bow. But why is Crane, then, so cynical about very existence of the gods?
Is it possible that there's some arrangement in Triv whereby Sphygx speaks
only to women? 
 
> Jerboa offering children (_Exodus_, p 230)? This one doesn't support my
> position, in light of rereading the earlier passage about the monkey.
> The monkey Jerboa sacrificed was at his first sacrifice, and he was
> leery of such already.  So I'm no longer quite so sure he ever actually
> sacrificed a child.  It's Maytera Wood who says "They remind him of
> children."  I think that's what got me going, and I may have read too
> much into it.

I think you did, but it's understandable.

> On Marble/Rose mixture (_Exodus_, p. 215):
> 
> [Marble, getting effusive towards Mint:] "If I'd had to live by myself
> in the cenoby with just Maytera Rose and that chem I couldn't have stood
> it. We'd have gone mad!"
> 
> One of the more perfect lines in the book!

I've held out against mantis on this front pretty stalwartly, but I have to
admit that this is a heart-stopping moment...and one that caught me on my
very first reading. I must have mentally suppressed it!

Vizcacha, you have undone me! Excellent work.

-alga-

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