(urth) Short Story 68: Many Mansions

[Marc Aramini]

Two more little things that I think are kind of neat.

Why Halloween?  The "things" are dressing up as comfortable houses to
attract their pollinators: to Lily the house is a safe, fun brothel; to Pim
it is a fireplace to rest, etc. Their mimicry is a kind of costume.

Also, I can't help but wonder about the concept of original sin in a
completely in vitro birth.  Nor speculates that even if the girl is grown
she must still surely have a mother, and I am wondering about the
pollination of the mimic houses as a kind of asexual union as well.  Note
that Nor says she really doesn't believe that human minds are running the
houses, though supposedly she is living in one: "If there were people's
brains in them (and I've never been sure that was true) then they must have
been women's brains mostly."  I also feel that the road in Nepo Pass which
has been built over the original road on the planet is symbolic of the
houses that the settler's construct: they have, in a way, provided a
covering, shape, and form to the houses they built, but perhaps they have
simply built over and through something much older and more foreign -
something using mimicry and disguise to attract humans and lure them in.
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