(urth) Like a good Neighbor

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

Lee Berman wrote:

> Wolfe is playing tricks on us here. If inhumi can survive being buried
> underground for months or years, perhaps they can survive the void. But
> if they are killed merely by the cold of snow, they can't. Since it is
> is too cold for their eggs to hatch on Blue, I tend to believe that cold
> does them in, and their space travel is a lie.

Many animals can live in conditions where their eggs can't successfully hatch.


> Moreover, in every conversation we hear, for every inhumu, Wolfe makes it
> clear that they are reflexively, inherently liars. I don't and never have
> thought they really fly through space.

How, then, do you account for their appearance in great numbers at conjunction?


> More moreover, we are told there is a deep, hidden secret of the inhumi. That
> their essence is of whatever they feed upon is simply too banal.

I disagree. I think that it is much deeper than you're giving credit
for; it is of the essence of Wolfe's frequent theme that you become
what you pretend to be. In the case of the inhumi, they pretend to be
what they are becoming.


> Plus that
> secret is given to us. It makes sense that there is another inhumi secret
> that we must figure out for ourselves.

Because we want there to be something else? Or because the text
indicates that there must be one? If so, where does it do so?

> I think perhaps James and Marc have done this. If inhumi are increasing in
> numbers on Blue without egg hatching or space travel, the secret may well
> be that inhumi are, at their most basic essence, lianas. Gerry's notice of
> a tree in Quetzal's garden only lends further support to this.

Because, God knows, a tree is an unusual thing to find in a garden...

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes