<div>You have to explain away the death of the cat, the death of the boy, the presence of two alien species, the presence of Veil's hypothesis, believe that number five dreams of abos by coincidence the day after he meets his aunt, the name of the city, the weird lack of new buildings in the last 140 years ... prophylactic has a nice double meaning, I admit, but the bite of the abo that switches Eastwind and Sandwalker symbolizes all that confusion of indentity as well - Easwind, Sandwalker, the abos, the shadow children, the humans - they are all confused about who they are, and if that confusion ISN'T in the text, you haven't been reading the same book. The main cast outside of a story are confused about who they are as well. The story is about being confused about who you are. But if we know the life cycle of the abos and their imitative properties, a street named after larva and mention of at least one of the species being long and living between the branches of trees actually resonates a bit.</div>
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<div>My life cycle schema makes the narrative you MUST dismiss as a lie and fabrication (the murder of the cat, the death of Victor) literally true and also gives it narrative reason (at least, the slaying of the cat).</div>
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<div>Yes, we have one plausible means of persecution. I mentioned it already, Gerry - humans on abo. Do you see that below? It's the same thing you reiterated. see that there? "abo incarcerated by humans OR" That OR implies there are two plausible scenarios given the species we have been introduced to. The first is the first logical conclusion we can come to before we understand the life cycles at work.</div>
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<div>But your advantage is not an advantage, because then Victor has to be COMPLETELY DELUSIONAL about his own death and the murder of the cat, very very concrete matters. Either way, delusion ensues.<br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 11:28 AM, Gerry Quinn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gerry@bindweed.com" target="_blank">gerry@bindweed.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;PADDING-LEFT:1ex" class="gmail_quote">
<div><br>On 24/08/2014 17:52, Marc Aramini wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="BORDER-LEFT:#ccc 1px solid;MARGIN:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;PADDING-LEFT:1ex" class="gmail_quote">It takes about three days for Marsch to be reborn on Easter Sunday from the bite as something different - his body undergoes a harrowing over that period of time. The existence of two alien races is simple: it creates a means for "Other" to be persecuted - abo incarcerated by humans or shadow child incarcerated by abos who believe themselves to be human. Abo incarcerated by abo makes no sense. The officer making a slave open the document with a knife and then showering prophylactically shows a strange unhandiness and a fear of saliva. This multiplication of species must serve a narrative purpose. The switch of Sandwalker to Eastwind and the human landers suddenly not knowing what open hands mean shows the climactic switch when humans are replaced by abos who now believe themselves to be humans. Why bring up Liev's postulate at all if it isn't even a possibility? It is present in the text. So are meta statements like "don't ask me how big a child is". The details of A Story honestly don't make much sense unless they are pointing to a symbolic representation of Marsch's fate to elucidate the two life cycles at work - larval, adult, sessile carapace/tree and an infectious empathic one.<br>
<br></blockquote><br></div>We *have* a means for 'Other' to be persecuted: abos persecuted by humans (and of course plenty of intra-human persecution, particularly on Sainte Croix).<br><br>Why can't the officer simply fear spirochaetes of the ordinary kind? He shares the girl with the other officers. If people on Sainte Croix are terrified of being infected by alien mind-controlling parasites (or by the wrong sort of alien mind-controlling parasites) why don't we hear more about it than a passing reference to an officer who likes to wash after sex?<br>
<br>The French landers hold up open hands - it is Sandwalker who doesn't understand the significance because his people don't use weapons.<br><br>The major advantage of the interpretation, boring as it might seem, in which nearly everyone in normal society (now) is human apart from a few abos who slip under the radar, is that no character in any of the three novellas is required to be completely delusial about concrete matters.
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<div class="h5"><br><br>- Gerry Quinn<br>______________________________<u></u>_________________<br>Urth Mailing List<br>To post, write <a href="mailto:urth@urth.net" target="_blank">urth@urth.net</a><br>Subscription/information: <a href="http://www.urth.net/" target="_blank">http://www.urth.net</a><br>
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