(urth) interview questions

[Tony Ellis]

Gerry Quinn wrote:
> [The Shadow Children] have returned to the state of
> "long ago, before a fool struck fire" and rediscovered a lost human capacity
> for telepathy.  This power may be amplified by the presence of the native
> Annese  ("the first heard the songs of the second and sent them out again,
> greater than before").

So there is a native telepathic race *and* a human race that has
rediscovered telepathy? I find that messy.

> The other comments are not in the same breath but much earlier, when the
> Shadow Child consciousnesses dominate the Old Wise One. He is speaking of
> how the Shadow Children see themselves when he says they are tall, and
> strong, and gods.

Exactly. This is how they see themselves. And since how they see
themselves is blatantly at odds with reality, why should we put any
stock in the fact that they also see themselves as human?


> And there is no reversal of his claim, because when he says
> "we were mostly long" he is speaking of Sandwalker's people.

*If* he was speaking of Sandwalker's people he wouldn't be reversing
his claim, but what makes you so sure he is? Here's the Old Wise One
again:

Shadow Child: "Since first we came here-"
"Since first *they* came here," the Old Wise One corrected him gently.
"Now I am half a man, and know that we were always here listening to
thought that did not come; listening without thought of our own to be
men."

Since he is addressing a Shadow Child, there is no room for confusion
over who is meant by 'they' and 'we' here. This is what the OWO thinks
when he is at equilibrium: 50/50 Shadow Child and Sandwalker. Should
we believe him? Since he is no longer making patently untrue claims
about being tall and strong, I think we should.


> Why did the humans
> disappear?  Why do the Shadow Children think they are the humans who landed?
> There are no apparent clues to any of these questions.

They humans didn't disappear. They are Sandwalker and his people. The
Shadow Children think they are the humans because, as we are told on
several different occasions, the arriving humans profoundly
'impressed' the native shapechangers. A telepathic blank canvas, the
shapechangers wanted to be these exciting, sentient people, much as
the inhumi do.