From: "Robert Borski" <rborski@charter.net>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Re: Re: Re: godlings
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 20:46:39 

Nutria dipping his ratty tail into electric ink and writing:

>>I'm also on record as stating that I believe the Mother is a godling and
meant to host Scylla, but this involves accepting my notion that Pas and the
other Mainframe gods are Neighbor-type aliens.<<

<Surely you don't still maintain this? If so, you should take up the
arguments presented against it. Also, since you now say the other mainframe
gods are Neighbors, what about the very human pre-adolescent Scylla? >

Yep. Still do. Such is the strength of my various delusional belief systems,
including the one that maintains the Neighbors are capable of
shape-shifting. You all don't have to buy it. But it's how I choose to the
view the book--just as others believe there are ubiquitous Scylla-type
aliens scattered throughout the universe or the inhumi can negotiate the
vacuum between Blue and Green or that Silk has committed suicide or
accidentally bled to dead from cuts inflicted during the grieving process.
Chaçun yadda yadda yadda. As for Scylla's very human pre-adolescent
appearance, let me note that the head of Typhon grafted to Piaton appears
human (when in Rome, et cetera), and only the mythic aspect of his name
allows us to surmise he is actually an alien. Typhon possibly being able to
shift his appearance toward the human is one potential explanation for this;
but just as easily he could have had his technicians provide him and his
wife and children with humanoid-type features.

Which brings me to yet another unaccepted plot point. Alex David Groce once
accused me of conflating Cilinia, Greater Scylla, the Mother, and Mainframe
Scylla, and he's absolutely right because I think all four are aspects of
the same entity. Sisters of a feather, if you wish to throw in Oreb. And
therefore sort of an alien Mother-Daughter-Holy Ghost conglomerate.

<<Re yet another discredited theory of mine--that Pig has assassinated Silk
in his manse>>

< But Pig clearly "sees" that the Narrator is Silk, so how can he think he
killed Silk? I just don't think this works. >

But the original human Silk--that is to say the unalloyed Patera Silk we
meet in the Long Sun series--or at least his biological housing or
meatware--_has_ died, if temporarily, whereas the "person" Pig bonds with is
an amalgam of Horn and Silk and Pas downloaded into Silk's body. And Pig
himself is clearly a dissembler, never once admitting he's a godling
(although the ear remarks in the Mainframe surgery comes close). It's also
in his best interests not to say he's killed Silk, since he needs Silk|Horn
to help him gain his sight back. Ergo, the semi-factual story he weaves and
tells the Narrator.

Robert Borski




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