(urth) FW: May 2014 Wolfe interview in _Technology Review_

[Marc Aramini]

they say the white creatures they chew and spit out are their "brides." -
seems like an organism to me. As I said, the associations are symbolic
rather than literal, so proving it is quite unlikely.  Sandwalker and
Eastwind ARE switched by a bite.  Marsch is switched with a bite, too.  But
you don't buy it, that's fine.


On Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 9:22 AM, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com> wrote:

>
> On 05/08/2014 14:54, Marc Aramini wrote:
>
>>
>> Seeing as how I view Shadow Children as psychically gifted and
>> "empathetic" and capable of rising up in the draft of currents from the
>> ground and take seriously the idea that even though they are many when they
>> are confronted  they fade into "one lonely" - (ie a parasitic community
>> that infects a host so thoroughly that they are effectively only that one
>> being, the small things living in the mouth that the large Shadow Child
>> says might switch Eastwind and Sandwalker when he bites them at the end of
>> "A Story" (because he is infected himself and is a "shadow child", though
>> "A Story" is a myth and is not realistic in all details, being symbolic in
>> some), I feel most of your discussion is probably moot - the Shadow
>> Children are only human insofar as they can infect them. Also, I believe
>> Shadow Child infection can alter the eyes, such as the doubled pupil that
>> seems to be undergoing meiosis or something after Marsch shoots the wild
>> animals near the back of beyond. I don't want to argue about any of that
>> stuff, but I do want to point out "all this is stated quite clearly in the
>> text" when you are talking about "A Story" in Fifth Head of Cerberus is
>> simply not an accurate assessment of all the confusing stuff  and mystical
>> mumbo jumbo going on, where both species are very confused about their
>> origin.  One is imitative, one infectious, and both might have come from a
>> single source of divergent evolution ... or not.
>>
>
> There are no small creatures in the Shadow Child's mouth.  "That which
> swam in my mouth swims in his veins now" is singular - it refers to the
> drug plant they chew.  "And because I spoke to him and he believed me, in
> his mind he is you" - drug-induced hypnosis.  And I ask again, where do we
> find any reason to believe the original Marsch was infected in some way by
> Victor?  He got a cat-bite that went septic, but nowhere is infection
> linked to imitation.  The green eyes of the aborigines (such as Victor) are
> not double-pupilled - what have they to do with the eyes of the hippo or
> whatever?
>
> I don't believe there is any confusion - we are given a quite coherent, if
> unlikely, story.  The Old Wise One is never confused about his origin until
> a large part of him is generated from Sandwalker's mind.  Then, and only
> then, does he become confused, and in a manner consistent with the story so
> far.  Note that the actual story doesn't change anyway - he just doesn't
> know which of the two peoples he is - the humans who crossed from star to
> star, landing on Sainte Anne, or the shape-shifting tool-less people -
> Sandwalker's ancestors - they found there.
>
>
> - Gerry Quinn
>
>
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