(urth) Inhumi secret

[Lee Berman]

>David Stockhoff: Perhaps the Neighbors were somewhat better at it than we would be. 
>They did after all gather enough "political will" to leave Blue and Green entirely. 
>I don't see humans doing even that much.

I agree with this. I get the sense that the Neighbors, though previously highly susceptible
to the evil of Inhumi are now immune to them. Perhaps this is related to the fact that they no 
longer exist entirely in our physical, material plane 

>Actually, I think they see a potential for good in us that we don't. 
>They may inflate it somewhat because it represents a grave danger to them. But they 
>are smart enough to not take it for granted---

I think this general direction of thinking might get to the heart not only of Short Sun but 
perhaps the whole Sun series. I've long gotten the sense that Wolfe is depicting a kind of
spiritual progression across the 12 books. 

I'll guess Green is the starting point and the Edenic associations to it support that. Urth
and The Whorl, war-torn and ruled by superhuman pagan gods, is probably the next stage in 
the progression. Ushas and Blue would be next; the Flooding somehow keeps the rule of the
giant gods at a more manageable level?

As seems to be Wolfe's wont, he doesn't directly address the impact of Christ's arrival in his
fiction. But advanced beings like the hierotypes, The Green Man and Neighbors would seem to 
illustrate what the next stage beyond our own current status might be.