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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=dstockhoff@verizon.net
href="mailto:dstockhoff@verizon.net">David Stockhoff</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">On
11/20/2011 9:36 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:<BR>><BR>> > Having read as far
as the chapter ‘Krait’, the idea that he was <BR>> > replaced by a
Neighbour in the pit seems bizarre to me. Just consider <BR>> > the most
obvious point: he needs the help of an inhumu to get out! And <BR>> > to
get it he betrays his wife and family. Unless you think this <BR>> >
Neighbour is a spy for his race and a rather nasty piece of work, or a <BR>>
> very impulsive and impulsive creature with no conscience, how do you
<BR>> > explain this? [that was supposed to read “impulsive and
irrational”]<BR><BR>> So what? You'll have to outline your objection a little
better. When <BR>> does a Wolfe character ever take complete moral
responsibility for <BR>> everything? What do the Neighbors owe him after
unkilling him?</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">You’re
missing the point. If they were trying to help him, they didn’t do a very
good job of it, but that’s consistent with them doing as much as they could (the
astral projection device). But if they were sending one of their own to
replace him, they did a really terrible job insofar as after the replacement he
was still stuck in the pit – that requires an astounding degree of impulsiveness
and irrationality! And finally if they intended to replace him and offer
Krait his family to get him out, that makes them downright non-benevolent, and
doesn’t work with the whole storyline.</DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Only
the first option is really tenable.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><BR>> > The ‘glittering eyes’ he sees while lying semi-conscious, and
the <BR>> > ‘long nosed man or spider’ that he apparently sees with his
eyes <BR>> > closed are presumably Neighbours. [Are we supposed to think
of <BR>> > Severian? Doesn’t make much sense for him to be there though.]
The <BR>> > long-nosed man seemingly uses a device on him that sends him
on a <BR>> > short astral excursion. I think it is likely that this device
<BR>> > *changed* him in some way by granting him or causing him to
develop <BR>> > certain psychic abilities (they probably developed as a
consequence of <BR>> > his temporary exposure as well as subsequent
experimentation and other <BR>> > events). But he is still Horn.<BR>>
> Assuming the Neighbours were present and are essentially benevolent,
<BR>> > it seems they could not help him in the obvious way, i.e. by
getting <BR>> > him out of the pit, as Krait did. But this ties in very
well with the <BR>> > notion that they are half-in, half-out of our
dimension, and are <BR>> > limited in their physical abilities (see also
the corpses in the sewer <BR>> > on Green).<BR><BR>> As fairies always
are.</DIV>
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<DIV>Sure. Like I said, I agree with James that they have some things in
common with fairies. But they have characteristics that are quite
untypical of fairies, too.</DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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