(urth) Like a good Neighbor

[Gerry Quinn]

From: António Pedro Marques 
> This is similar to Gerry's refutation about the fact that the Rajan claimed to know 
> something about the Mother's  worshippers but not /everything/.
As you know very well, that was just intended as one of many examples of how he seems to know essentially diddley squat about the Neighbours. 
Having read as far as the chapter ‘Krait’, the idea that he was replaced by a Neighbour in the pit seems bizarre to me.  Just consider the most obvious point: he needs the help of an inhumu to get out!  And to get it he betrays his wife and family.  Unless you think this Neighbour is a spy for his race and a rather nasty piece of work, or a very impulsive and impulsive creature with no conscience, how do you explain this?
The ‘glittering eyes’ he sees while lying semi-conscious, and the ‘long nosed man or spider’ that he apparently sees with his eyes closed are presumably Neighbours.  [Are we supposed to think of Severian?  Doesn’t make much sense for him to be there though.]  The long-nosed man seemingly uses a device on him that sends him on a short astral excursion.  I think it is likely that this device *changed* him in some way by granting him or causing him to develop certain psychic abilities (they probably developed as a consequence of his temporary exposure as well as subsequent experimentation and other events).  But he is still Horn.  
Assuming the Neighbours were present and are essentially benevolent, it seems they could not help him in the obvious way, i.e. by getting him out of the pit, as Krait did.  But this ties in very well with the notion that they are half-in, half-out of our dimension, and are limited in their physical abilities (see also the corpses in the sewer on Green).
So that’s my working theory so far.  I don’t disagree with James’s assertion that the Neighbours have something of Faerie about them, but Horn ain’t no changeling.
- Gerry Quinn
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20111120/d62e5cfd/attachment-0004.htm>