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From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph@earthlink.net> Subject: (whorl) The Secret: how dangerous, really? Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 09:16:29 An apparently very strong objection to the Golden Rule as the means by which the Secret can be used against the inhumi (either by protection or conversion) is "how can the inhumi, knowing the humans as they do, believe that humans could ever love one another as themselves?" But nobody, afaik, has suggested any other theory which the inhumi would think practical but is actually impractical. I can see two solutions to this dilemma, both relying upon Horn being mistaken. 1. Horn is mistaken in thinking that the inhumi fear that the Secret can be used to destroy them. He thinks that this is how he controlled the inhumi in Gaon. But Jahlee never says so, nor does any other inhumi, iirc. Rereading Jahlee's first appearance, it's quite possible that Jahlee promises to obey Horn because she is already in love with him. And the other inhumi might obey him because of his promise to free the other buried inhumi. In fact, he says as much: "Our inhumi do as I ask because I have continued to free others...I have promised over and over to give them the location of the reamining interments" (OBW, 344) Moreover, if the inhumi are really so terrified of the Secret, why do the ones who follow Horn and Evensong refrain from killing Horn, as they apparently do (Horn's words to Hide to the contrary)? They could kill him at practically any time after he leaves Gaon, for that matter. This idea had occurred to me before, but I rejected it on the grounds that Horn could not have gotten the idea that the Secret could destroy the inhumi without Krait having told him. But I now think this is not an insuperable objection. Horn tells Evensong: "He [Krait] didn't intend to give me power over them, you understand....For a long, long time I didn't realize what he had done either. If I'd understood the power of Krait's secret while Sinew and I were on Green, things might have gone differently." (OBW, 374) In light of this statement, it could well be that Krait had merely told Horn that it was a secret the inhumi didn't want known, without saying why; and that Horn, pondering on why the inhumi wanted it kept secret, had later concluded on his own that it was because the Secret could be used to destroy the inhumi. If this is true, then why do the inhumi want the Secret kept secret? Here I return to an idea proposed earlier by someone else, that the inhumi wanted it kept Secret because of the shame it brought on them. (Apologies for not remembering who, but the latest volume of the archives is too big for me to access.) The original proposer argued that this was how to destroy the inhumi, which was wrong; but it may well be the reason why the inhumi don't want the Secret known. 2. Horn is mistaken in thinking that the Secret cannot be used. The key to applying the Secret is protecting everybody, and 100% protection is not necessary (see my previous post). Moreover, it may well be the case that the blood taken by an inhuma only preserves its spirit-conferring properties for a few months or less, and that the inhuma would have to return to Green to spawn within this time. If this is true, then it's not necessary to provide protection all the time, only during conjunction and for a few months before. In this case, a strong ruler could enforce protective measures out of self-interest, without everybody having to love everybody else. Horn dismisses this possibility because of his pessimism over human nature, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's correct. Horn's belief that the Secret cannot be used may also in part be another instance of avoiding looking at what is too painful. If the Secret can be used, then he has to either betray his "son" Krait by breaking his oath, or betray humanity by hiding the Secret. By convincing himself that the Secret can't be used, he avoids this dilemma. --Adam *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