(urth) Like a good Neighbor

[David Stockhoff]

On 11/25/2011 9:18 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
> I assume they only went to blue after Neighbors flew to Green and became corrupted by the
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> parasites. Then the corrupted Neigbors were willing to decimate their own home planet and
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> population.

So the inhumi used Neighbor ships? That's possible.

Is there any evidence of any character who is an inhumu who has fed on a 
Neighbor?
>
> There is a connecting theme here to other Wolfe books. In 5HoC, we are presented with the
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> principle than an imitative species will lie and deceive even itself to maintain the illusion
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> of the imitation. In UotNS, Zak runs away from Severian when he recognizes that the little guy
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> who helped him is the animal he previously encounted. Severian accepts the running away noting
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> that such a defense mechanism must be part of the deepest instinct of such a species.
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>
>
> Interestingly, WOlfe's principle that a vile, imitative species can, if given the right source
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> material, become gods is duplicated in the finale of Frank Herbert's Dune series.
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>
>
> Anyway, to sum up, I see this as a choice between a simple, cool but unexplained scientific
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> improbability and a socio-political-religious commentary about instinctive liars and imitators
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> which extends across numerous WOlfe stories.  I guess we can have both, but the Short Sun series
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> becomes significantly thinner if we don't catch the second possibility.

I don't see why we can't have both. Only if we insist on determining the 
absolute truth---in a universe where such appears to be 
unattainable---does that decision need to be a binary one.