Gerry, someone took Marsch's place, that's why the officer nodded at the handwriting, it just wasn't who is commonly perceived to have taken Marsch's place. Marsch is not the same man, he is dead, taken over by the collective shadow child infection, who are many but fade into one lonely<br>
<br>On Monday, August 18, 2014, Marc Aramini <<a href="mailto:marcaramini@gmail.com">marcaramini@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Gerry only the one guy was a shadow child infection. Everybody else is an abo mimic in port mimizon. Marsch and number five are the odd man out. That's why it's port mimizon, just mimicking humanity. Two different life cycles. Do you not understand what I have been saying? Your question about the name of port mimizon being irrelevant is mind blowing. Everyone there is an abo. Except Marsch and number five. I want to stop but then you ask a question like that indicating you have no idea what my position is. <br>
<br>On Monday, August 18, 2014, Gerry Quinn <<a href="javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','gerry@bindweed.com');" target="_blank">gerry@bindweed.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
On 17/08/2014 18:16, Marc Aramini wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I understand why you won't accept them, but it would be impossible for me to make those kind of connections to specific repetitive descriptions (staff/stork/heron-like/leg injuries or paralyzation/abo girl expressing chagrin over travelling far by foot) in an alien's leg and a human's leg in, say, Rama II or any other book by Wolfe. How many cities do you know that are specifically identified by the parts of a hand and just happen to have streets named after larva and cities named after mimicry? If you think that's random, cool. I understand, but I certainly couldn't make those kinds of extremely specific associations in any other work. Let's just agree to disagree<br>
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<br>
But are these associations really specific when you examine them? Seven Girls Waiting is reluctant to travel a long distance, but she has recently given birth and has been starving. She goes anyway, and later follows Sandwalker down the river. Her legs are fine. Phaedria explicitly has a broken ankle, and there are other girls whose play-acting is not restricted to playing cripples. Aunt Jeannine has some unspecified disabiiity, for which she uses a high-tech solution which shocked No. 5 (so it cannot be commonplace). There's nothing to suggest most women don't walk normally. And Victor's mother, an abo, walked miles upstream to wash his clothes. You notice women with some temporary or permanent issue and ignore all those who walk normally. And how much sense does the "womens legs" association make anyway?<br>
<br>
Port-Mimizon has some letters in common with 'mimicry' - that doesn't mean it's named after it. And where does mimicry come in anyway, if you are replacing mimicry with some kind of infection?<br>
<br>
Parts of the geography of Sainte Croix are named after a hand (there are headlands referencing thumb and fingers). But think about this: what does a hand signify but humans? - if it symbolises anything, it is the opposite of the symbolism you are loading onto it! Veil told us the truth about Veil's Hypothesis. It is only an excuse - there is no reason to hypothesise a takeover by alien monsters, because humans are monstrous enough. If the hand shaped continent on Sainte Croix has any symbolism, this is the level it exists at. It's not telling us a secret clue about maggots or some other SF element. The SF story exists on its own level, with its own level of clues, and the symbolism of The Hand exists at a different level.<br>
<br>
I ask again, why does the officer nod when he compares the handwriting? Can you think of any conceivable reason Wolfe wrote that other than to make it clear to the reader that Victor started writing the journal at this point?<br>
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- Gerry Quinn<br>
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