(urth) Marble on Urth

[James Wynn]

"Enormous darkness high overhead, blotting the sun-drenched field, the 
straggling line of servants in which she had stood, and the soldiers' 
precise column. She had seen it descend from the sky, at first a fleck 
of black that had seemed no bigger than a flake of soot; [...](CALDE, 285)

>> J Wynn: What is "coming down" here is the line of servants and soldiers.
>> Because they are on the Whorl, she can see the very long line descend
>> from the skylands.
> Roy:
> Not a chance. Even a miles-long line of chems walking on the inner surface
> of the _Whorl_  toward a particular sun-drenched field would not, could not
> blot out the light from the long sun.

> Mo Holkar:
> No, I don't think that can be right -- the "it" that descends from the 
> sky is the "enormous darkness", the subject of the previous sentence 
> (ie. a ship above them, which first appeared high up as a fleck of 
> black but is now enormous), not the line.  A line of which she was 
> herself an element couldn't appear to her like a fleck. Also, if 
> talking of a line of chems of which she and the soldier are elements, 
> they wouldn't say "it" was dirty. 

I really think you ar e both misreading this. It's "enormous darkness 
OVERHEAD blotting the sundrenched fields". If the darkness is overhead, 
then it can't blot the sun-drenched fields which --on Urth-- are below. 
I think you guys are thinking of "blot out" which is a different 
picture. If it is the shadow of a transport "blotting the fields" then 
it can't be overhead. What we are to envision is the blackness of the 
Nightside against the "sun-drenched fields" of the Dayside.

It is not the line of chems that is dirty, nor a transport. It is the 
Whorl itself which has only recently been completed. Marble is a maid 
chem and so sees everything in terms of whether it needs cleaning or not.


> Mo Holkar:
> No, I don't think that can be right -- the "it" that descends from the 
> sky is the "enormous darkness", the subject of the previous sentence 
> (ie. a ship above them, which first appeared high up as a fleck of 
> black but is now enormous), not the line.  A line of which she was 
> herself an element couldn't appear to her like a fleck. Also, if 
> talking of a line of chems of which she and the soldier are elements, 
> they wouldn't say "it" was dirty.


> Roy:
> Marble and the other chems were
> standing in a field waiting for a spaceship to come down. It was the
> spaceship that first appeared as a fleck of black. It appeared larger and
> larger as it neared the chems, until its giant shadow covered them: "When
> had it been, that sun-drenched field? The jokes and the laughter, and the
> overhanging, overawing shadow that had made them fall silent?" (CALDE, 282)

Once again, this is the Nightside that is overawing. There are no cities 
that are lit up on the Nightside yet. This is a view of the dawning of 
creation when there are no "stars" in the Nightside skylands. That is 
what is significant about this memory.

J.