(urth) Reptiles

[Mark Millman]

Dear Mr. Berman,

On Friday 7 January 2010, you wrote:

>> Jerry Friedman: it's not
>> the inhumi's nature that's
>> reptilian; it's their appear-
>> ance.  They're nothing
>> like Earth reptiles in their
>> behavior.  And I see no
>> discrepancy between
>> reptilian appearance and
>> external fertilization.  I
>> see no reason evolution
>> on Blue-Green should
>> have gone the same way
>> it did on Earth, no reason
>> we have to adjust our
>> ideas about them when
>> we learn about their fer-
>> tilization or even if they
>> have some mysterious
>> essential link to trees
>> and vines.
>
> I think we have another example of
> personal experience biasing inter-
> pretation. For me, being a reptile
> MEANS internal fertilization and ter-
> restrial eggs. That was their major
> evolutionary adaptation, allowing
> vertebrates to colonize the land and
> join their plant and insect cousins
> there.
>
> For me it is as though Gene WOlfe
> spent three books noting the bird-
> like appearance of Inhumi and then
> at the end reveals- they have no
> wings. That would have to be a sig-
> nificant solution to some series
> mystery, because an assumption
> of wings is something (I think) we
> all share with regard to birds.
>
> I don't know if Gene Wolfe shares
> my perception that internal fertiliza-
> tion is an essential part of being a
> reptile or whether he just thinks of
> them as being scaly, creepy things.
> I can't know. On the one hand he is
> scientific and detail oriented. On the
> other hand he seems to have con-
> flated monkeys and apes in a cou-
> ple spots in his work. (a baboon is
> big, but definitely a monkey).
>
> I lean toward Wolfe recognizing the
> essentiality of reptilian internal fer-
> tilization because it fits patterns I
> keep seeing. One is the increasing
> simplicity of their origin...
>
> But the other may even more cen-
> tral...Wolfe is saying, at the end,
> that shapeshifting Inhumi need a
> body of surface water to reproduce.
> In a 12 book series in which fish
> and flooding seem to be recurring
> themes, I think this is likely to be
> a significant revelation.

And later, you also wrote:

> When I read Robinson Crusoe or
> some other old book and a charac-
> ter remarks, "the ape didst gnaw
> upon its own tail", I can appreciate
> the archaic use of the word. And I
> think maybe Wolfe was going for
> that sort of usage to go along with
> his other archaic terms and names
> rather than making a linnaean error.

In that case, it may interest you to know that, at roughly the same
time that the term "ape" comprised large monkeys such as baboons, the
term "reptile" comprised amphibians--which typically have externally
fertilized eggs that require open water.

Best,

Mark Millman