(urth) Fava in the Whorl, and where the Neighbors went

[James Wynn]

>[1] is most consistent with everything else we are told. Neighbors
>went to "a [real] new whorl circling another short sun" [in ships,
>possibly FTL,] and return to visit ancestral places on Blue via
>astral travelling.

Well, actually, the only ships that we are told the Neighbors ever built
were *landers* not starcrossers.

 [2] leaves open the question of where the
> Neighbor bodies are & what they're doing when they're not astral
> travelling. If you explain that using [4], you've moved into Grand
> Unified Tree Theory territory which I don't believe in,

Perhaps, then,  I don't really understand then what the GUTT is. I thought
you were referring to a belief that the trees on Urth were the trees in
Bleen. If that's all it is then I don't know why [4] insists on that.

>You also have to explain away the Neighbors' lying when they claim
>that they have, in fact, gone away.

Why would that be a lie? "Horn" left his body on Green. Would it be lying to
say he left for Whorl? When the Rajan went to Green and Urth, did he go
away?

>[3] is like the GUTT; I don't
>find a shred of support for it in the text, though it could make a
>good story.

(shrug) Okay. If someone tells me there is "not a shred of support in the
text" for time-travel, all the readily availabe proof-texting won't change
anything.

>[5]is kind of attractive. It would also provide a mechanism for
>Neighbors getting real, physical inhumi onto the Whorl (as they did
>- this is as solid as anything ever is in Wolfe). But I don't know
> of any evidence for it, apart from the IGJ passage mentioned above,
> which doesn't have to imply it.

I would find it very attractive except that the Rajan was *convinced* they
required landers to get to Green.

>Whatever theory you pick has to deal with inhumi-related things:
>
> - How did the Neighbors get inhumi onto the Whorl? If they don't
> have their own ships, they must either have used undocumented pre-
> Exodus human landers, or something like [5].
>
> - How do Neighbors breed new inhumi to sue as mirrors for
> themselves? Either they have undocumented abilities to breed inhumi
> on their new whorl, or they have to be able to ferry inhumi to &
> from Green. In the latter case, [1] and [5] again seem to be the
> possibilities.

Or their bodies are on Blue and Green with vines growing on them. That would
have the advantage of being documented over and over again.
;-)

J