(urth) Urth Digest, Vol 75, Issue 24

Andrew Mason andrew.mason53 at googlemail.com
Sat Nov 27 15:13:27 PST 2010


Lee Berman wrote:

> I don't see the need for being parsimonious and embracing ambiguity here. I think the
> clues are pointing to a specific answer- there were Inhumi on the Whorl from the
> beginning, meaning there were Inhumi on Urth.

I had thought Wolfe had said in an interview that the inhumi were late
arrivals on the Whorl. Having checked it, I think that strictly
speaking he only said that Quetzal was, which I suppose allows other
inhumi to have been around earlier. (But does not _Short Sun_ contain
an explanation of how they got on to the Whorl?)

There may, I suppose, have been inhumi on Urth which did not get on to
the Whorl. The fact they aren't apparent in _New Sun_ doesn't disprove
this; there are no doubt many things on Urth that Severian isn't aware
of,

 But I agree with Gerry Quinn that what we are told of devils doesn't
really fit inhumi very closely. I would think one of two things more
likely. Perhaps devils are just figures of myth (as far as the
compliers knew, at least), mentioned in some of the historic texts
used to make up the Chrasmologic writings. Or perhaps they are people
like Mucor. If she was geneticlly enhanced to produce her abilities,
it seems likely that she was not the first person  ever to have them -
there would heve been such people on Urth, though not on the Whorl
until the special embryos started appearing on the market.
>
 The Bible implies that
> the Flood here on Earth was necessary because fallen angels/demons had come down and mated
> with human women, creating a giant race of Nephilim and all manner of wickedness among humans.
> Dr. Talos' play contains allusions to all this.

Wolfe, however, reads the Nephilim differently; he explains this in
'Castle of the Otter'. He thinks they were the children of human women
with non-rational hominid fathers (who, being non-rational, were
incapable of sin and so could be called 'sons of God'). If anything in
the foreground story of _New Sun_ relates to this, I would think it's
the man-beast hybrids.

I find it most improbable that inhumi can breed with humans. Perhaps
some aliens can (there's a passage in _Urth_ which illuminates this,
though somewhat obscurely). But inhumi are reptiles; the difference
seems too great.



More information about the Urth mailing list