From: James Jordan <jbjordan@gnt.net>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Death of Jahlee
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 09:37:58 

At 10:02 PM 2/17/2001 -0600, Patera Bad Bunny wrote:
>James Jordan <jbjordan@gnt.net> wrote:
>
> > I believe that among the broad subtexts of the series is that Silk
> > is like Jesus and Horn is a bit like Paul. Humans are the Jews, and the
> > inhumi are the barbarians to whom Paul was sent.
>. . .
> >        So, let's not be surprised if Jahlee's "sanctification" is
> > imperfect. Wolfe's characters are on the road to being better people, but
> > they are never perfect!
>
>I guess I don't see how the inhumi as a whole are "on the road to being
>better people."  If the inhumi are Gentiles, why are so few of them
>(possibly Krait and Jahle alone; would you also say Fava?) "converted."

         I don't see the humans "on the whole" becoming better people 
either. I meant Wolfe's characters.
         But why not more inhumi? Well, I don't think the book of Acts or 
Paul's history is the main grid of the trilogy. It looks to me more like a 
Christianized Odyssey along with a medieval pilgrimage story (and I wonder 
if there is some specific crusade or pilgrimage narrative that Wolfe had in 
mind). I see the ripping out of eyes for others as a Pauline reference, as 
well as the fact that Horn is the first to begin to see a "mission to the 
inhumi." So, the "multitudes of gentiles" theme in Acts and the Epistles 
may well be lacking. At the same time, however, it does appear that 
multitudes of inhumi are wanting to become more human.
         The inhumi, however, are primarily our children. Like our 
children, they mirror us. Thus, Krait and Jahlee are Horn's children. Also, 
Horn does not like what he sees in Sinew precisely because Sinew mirrors 
Horn to himself. This is precisely what humans don't like about the 
inhumi-children: they mirror humanity to itself. That theme, I believe, is 
the much larger and pervasive theme in the trilogy.
         Or so it seems to me today.

Patera Nut.


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