(urth) Back to Inter Library Loan - prob some spoilers

[Ab de Vos]

Nice to see some activity on the list. I'm not sure I follow you 
completely since receiving the last message. Wolfe's last two works seem 
impenetrable to me, as late Wolfe generally.

Op 2-9-2021 om 10:51 schreef David Duffy:
> Hi All.
>
> Finally finished this. Since the Ploughman's level of story does seem rather full of trapdoors, as someone apparently epigrammatized about Wolfe, I have gone straight to the onomastics, mainly via Wikipedia !!?!
>
> The first kicker for me was that Fevre is an "Occupational surname for ironworkers and Smiths" - hmmph.
>
> Barry is Finnbarr is the King of the Dead, Adah is Dawn, and Chandra is Moon.
>
> "Finvarra is a benevolent figure who ensures good harvests, a master at chess, strong horses, and great riches to those who will assist him. However, he also frequently kidnaps human women."
>
> As Ern himself comments, Ern is the Sea-Eagle, but other meanings in Gaelic are "grieve", "mourn", "pain", "run".  Lichholm is pretty straightforward, along with the Jingle Bells House.
>
> Note that "True Humans" are perfectly bilaterally symmetric, so reclones are easy to pick. Note that there is a big literature on "fluctuating asymmetry" in biology,
> where asymmetry is a marker (a "soft sign") in humans and other species for assorted genetic disorders. I am sure that Wolfe knew that, given his love of wonky older science. But here, it is a further pointer to being of the Tuatha, some benevolent, some bipolar ;) I am reminded of _Castleview_, but also Waugh's _Decline and Fall_...
>
> Cheers, David Duffy.
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