(urth) Short Story 48: Peritonitis

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Marc Aramini

> “How the Inner People won them, they who then ate what they
> had from the waters, those unseen ones who never stand in sun,
> whelming Deepdelver in their myriads; how he their slave taught
> them to tear the meat they trod and so live lawfully, and how
>  they gave freedom to him, and Singing too, when once they had
> tasted; how the two made their way midst difficulties and dangers
>  to the Neck again; all these are more than I can say.  But you
> must know the courage and the history of your People before you
> fare forth; and I have told you.  Field and hill are cold now, and
> theWorld itself dying or dead, and the lands are filled with ghouls.
>  It is time you go. This was the last story.”

> I suppose my final conclusion is that it is in fact Deepdelver going
> in through the mouth, avoiding the digestive enzymes lurking
> temptingly in the water puddles there, overcoming the body’s
> natural defenses and getting to the intestine, where somehow in
> his bid for freedom he ruptures the peritoneum and starts the
>  infection which will kill the host and ultimately destroy the “world”
>  of our little microorganisms.  Can we identify them as bacteria,
>  virus, or other skin dwelling microorganism?  It does seem as if
> the legend of the dead ones winding up in the hair might make
> these little things actually part of the body itself, but the other
> rhetoric suggests that they are microorganisms and microbes
> living primarily outside the host – and the infiltration of Deepdelver
> upsets the internal flora enough to produce a life threatening
> rupture of the peritoneum.

The way I read it is they are bacteria and the key words are "how he []
taught them to tear the meat they trod and so live lawfully, and how
they gave freedom to him [] when once they had tasted"

What is being described is genetic recombination among bacteria, in which 
the gut flora receive DNA fragments coding for enzymes which allow them to 
attack and devour the substrate on which they live.  For skin bacteria like 
Deepdelver, the eating of dead skin cells is normal and not pathogenic to 
the host.  When the gut bacteria attack the gut wall, however, it leads to 
an infection and the death of the host.

> Are the breasts/New Mountains lactating or is this exudation that Greylock
> speaks of sign of infection?

It happened earlier, hence it must be lactation.  I think perhaps the host 
lost a child, but it is hard to be certain.  "For when those springs died 
the New Mountains waned; and the Belly, which had, scarcely noted, waxed 
above the Loins, withered in one dark. [Paragraph break] Then many felt 
their doom upon them; this feeling was in the meat, so it was said - but in 
the air as well."

It does seem to be the case that it was after this event that Singing was 
captured.

As for the story as a whole, I think we are intended to think of it as two 
separate interpretations of the same events [the human interpretation is 
implicit, as the human audience needs less help with that]. The events 
themselves are fully understood by neither the bacterial narrator nor the 
host's doctors.

- Gerry Quinn