Talk:The Book of the Short Sun

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Unwarranted assertion?[edit]

In the Setting section it states that it becomes clear that the events of The Book of the New Sun are starting as the events of The Book of the Short Sun are finishing. I'm not sure this can be asserted. Although it is a while since I read the books I seem to recall that there was a certain amount of time jumping combined with the visits to the Red Whorl and that we even saw the preparations for the launch of the Long Sun Whorl's voyage. Perhaps someone with more current access to the books could confirm this and/or add a reference.Ma1cius (talk) 16:22, 24 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I believe that the only unusual time effects between Blue and the Red Sun Whorl/Earth are those of time dilation — the people on the Whorl believe that their ship left Earth about three hundred years ago, but because of time dilation it was actually much longer than that. If Horn et al. were jumping back to the time of the Whorl's launch, then Typhon (Pas) would still be alive on Earth, which doesn't square with Severian encountering (then reviving and killing) his long-mummified corpse a few years after Horn visited him. It seems clear to me that the construction and launch of the Whorl happened long before Severian's time, in a less dissipated era. (You may be remembering the discussion with Duko Rigoglio, who was alive when the Whorl was being built, and described it.)

--Jere7my (talk) 06:47, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We know Typhon precedes Severian by about 1,000 years from the New Sun books. Throughout the Long and Short sun books, the Whorl is often stated as 300 years old. In three places, this age is challenged by characters: Maytera Marble speculates to herself that she is actually much older than 300 years when her parts are failing in the beginning of the Long Sun novels. In the beginning of the Short Sun novels, the 300 years is stretched to about 360 or 370 by one of the characters as a new estimate. And at the end of Return to the Whorl, when Hoof states that it was about 300 years for the Whorl's travel or existence: "It's been about 300 years. That's what they say." We really have to note that Wolfe is WELL KNOWN for making his characters fallible. Just as we can't get it straight, THEY also cannot get it straight. So this character is saying 300 years because other people said 300 years and he's just shrugging, that's what they say. The revealing part though is Silk's response: "It's been much longer than that..." and this is said in context of being on the Red Sun Whorl. This leaves us with two explanations: we can try to Star Trek reverse engineer some kind of time dilation -or- we can point to what Wolfe always does: his characters do not have all the information. They speculate 300 years, they change the speculation, they refer to each other, finally there is an authoritative statement: it's been much longer. While they are on the Red Sun Whorl... the implication is that the voyage took about 1,000 years and the 300 years tossed around by the layfolk is, as most layfolk information always is, as Wolfe points out in his interviews INCORRECT. He just writes stuff this way because people are often wrong, so he writes them as being wrong and it confuses the readers. He says this in his interviews.

Spoiler tag[edit]

Since it is possible to synopsize a book without spoiling it, it is not redundant to offer a spoiler tag in a synopsis section. I thought from the edit summary that the tag-removing edit was "official" in some sense, or indeed a simple tidying up of a redundant bracket somewhere, but now that I know it was one of thousands of similar wholesale edits I'm reasserting its importance. I'd also argue that people familiar with the books are the ones best suited to making those sorts of determinations, and that the WP:SPOILER guideline clearly lacks consensus at this time. --Jere7my 07:11, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but Wikipedia is not a repository for plot summaries. Multiple synopses are unnecessary for encyclopedic coverage. These sorts of warnings detract from the professional quality of the encyclopedia, and shouldn't be used unless there is a strong reason for a user to not expect spoilers. People understand that reading a plot synopsis might spoil the material, even if its possible to write a synopsis that doesn't. --Eyrian 07:18, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
This debate is not going to be settled here. Please leave the spoiler tags be until WP:SPOILER actually achieves consensus. --Jere7my 07:19, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I say remove them until the debate reaches consensus. Again, it's pretty obvious to me, speaking only in this single case, that putting a spoiler warning in a synopsis section is pretty unnecessary. --Eyrian 07:26, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Doesn't it make more sense to return the article to the state it was in before the tag-purging began? At the end of the day, I may agree with the removal or relocation of the spoiler tag here, but since the nub of the debate is whether the tag purge was a good idea I'd just as soon return the article to its pre-debate state until consensus on a policy is reached. --Jere7my 07:30, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Also, since this "book" actually consists of three separate novels, it may not be clear what the synopsis section covers; I think a spoiler tag is more appropriate here than in a single novel's SYNOPSIS section. --Jere7my 07:32, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I've now divided the section up, so that readers needn't worry about spoiling further than they'd like. Still, the spoiler tag in this instance remains unnecessary. --Eyrian 07:37, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I think that's sensible. Obviously the good of the article can be considered irrespective of debate elsewhere. Asking for us to hold off editing because a decision hasn't been made on some page somewhere else isn't really how we do things on Wikipedia. --Tony Sidaway 10:01, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Have either of you read these books? If not, I submit that you do not have the necessary knowledge to make a decision about spoiler tags. I further submit that Tony Sidaway, at least, has an anti-spoiler tag agenda that goes beyond what is good for any particular article. Finally "how we do things on Wikipedia" is dismissive. Obviously, it's how some of "us" do things on Wikipedia. --Jere7my 16:39, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No, I kicked out after Citadel. But how is knowing the plot relevant here? It is a matter of whether someone expects the plot to be spoiled from a synopsis/plot summary section, which is generally a universal criterion. --Eyrian 23:20, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
You should really read Long Sun and Short Sun; they're both excellent. Anyway, as I said above, I might eventually be persuaded that a spoiler tag on an entire synopsis is indeed redundant; that seems like one of the good parts of WP:SPOILER. Spoiler tags might be better reserved for a portion of a summary, like "SPOILER Then it turns out Bruce Willis has been dead all along. /SPOILER" But I think it's a violation of Wikipedia etiquette for a small group of editors to make wholesale changes to thousands of articles they're not personally familiar with, and I think spoiler tags should be left as they were before the purge until WP:SPOILER achieves a real consensus. As it now stands, the spoiler patrol deleted 45,000 spoiler tags without having to justify themselves; expecting every reinstatement of a spoiler tag to rigorously justify itself seems like quite an imbalance. --Jere7my 23:31, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, I can understand how people might be upset after a nightweek of the long knives for spoiler tags, but I haven't really been a part of that. I doubt I've removed more than a 5-10, and most of that is re-removal. I tend to agree with your view of the policy; it didn't seem to me that an entire section should be tagged. --Eyrian 23:56, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
OK. Thanks for the explanation, and apologies for lumping you in with the shadowy cabal. :) --Jere7my 00:00, 29 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Flying from Green to Blue[edit]

One of the inhumi (Jahlee) has an explanation of the inhumi flinging themselves into space to make the crossing from Green to Blue, on page 60 of Return to the Whorl: "If you're not strong enough, not a strong enough flier, you fall back to Green a failure. If you lack endurance... Only your frozen corpse gets to Blue. It crosses the sky there, a little scratch of fire." Since Horn knows about the landers at that point in the narrative, she'd have no reason to lie. I removed the long explanation of an unreliable narrator; we get it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak (though the editor was correct that they do also use landers, when they can get them). --Jere7my (talk) 07:00, 31 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You have it backwards. The fact that Horn knew from experience what the traveling truth was, is her exact reason to try to seed him with disinformation. If humans know the truth about how the inhumu travel between worlds, they will know how to stop them (disable all landers). So Jahlee is motivated to spin this tale and support the idea that inhumu can fly between worlds (unstoppable, so please, disregard this lander over here disabling it or attacking the people at Pajaroku and taking their lander is immaterial, right?). Furthermore, Jahlee is shown in the novels as an inhuma that Silk/Horn manipulates entirely because her motivation is to keep the inhumu's secrets, secret. Her agenda then is just that: she works to protect the secrets from getting out, she always does that. She stays with Silk/Horn possibly to find out who he has told, and who they have to kill. She is the opposite from the Horse's Mouth on this travel issue. Furthermore, she at the end of the novels has possibly seduced Hide on the Red Sun Whorl, and attempts to kill Silk/Horn's wife Nettle which confirms that she was working from her own agenda all along. When she finally dies, even though she cannot kill Nettle, she spits out the most important secret to her. This is a death sentence, which is the reason why Silk/Horn has never told anyone at all, aside from his promise. In the end, Nettle leaves the Short Sun Whorl even though the spirit of Horn has collapsed inside of Silk. No reason is given, but we know that Silk cares about everyone and knows this information is a death sentence, so possibly has encouraged her to leave so that she is not a target of further inhumu attacks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.12.220.29 (talk) 23:33, 7 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Section moved from main article[edit]

Maybe someone can find value in some of this, but it amounts to an essay on the books, and only someone who had already read the books could make sense of it. · rodii · 22:46, 29 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Inhumi and Interplanetary Travel[edit]

The inhumi are found on the Whorl before major colonization takes place of Blue and Green, one major character, Patera Quetzal, being a member of this race. At the end of The Book of the Long Sun, it is clear that they are present on Blue in small numbers and on Green in large numbers.

On Blue's Waters states that during the time of conjunction (once every six years) of Blue and Green that inhumi presence is much greater than at any other time.

Their ability to travel to these places is first illustrated by descriptions of beliefs, and then theories, then through actions related in the story, and finally an explanation is given in the third novel of the series.

The Theories[edit]

The Rajan states a theory (pp. 180–181) that Patera Quetzal may not have been the only inhumi on the Whorl, but one of many possibly, and indicates three theories that would explain the ability of inhumi to travel between the two planets and the Whorl. He also makes his difficulties with the three theories known, that he does not necessarily support them and that they do not explain everything.

The First Theory[edit]

  • "by extreme effort, they could jump out of the sea of air surrounding the whorl they wished to leave, taking aim at the whorl to which they wished to go. Their aim would not have to be precise, since they would fall toward the whorl they were trying to reach as soon as they neared it [...] light objects fall much more slowly than heavy ones, something that anyone can see by dropping a feather [...] The heat that troubles the landers must present no great problem to the inhumi."

The Rajan then states that this did not explain the presence of inhumu on the Whorl, and concludes that "Even then, I realized that other explanations were possible and might be correct."

For the most part, humans believed the first theory, and the inhuma Jahlee in Return to the Whorl made statements in support of this, claiming to have trained at higher and higher elevations for her leap between the planets, however never in the stories are inhumi actually shown to travel by this means.

The argument against this theory being true lies throughout the books:

  • The theory is stated using an explanation that is demonstrably false (that an animal not strong enough to carry large objects in flight (as is shown in the novels) through wing flapping can achieve escape velocity from an Earth sized planet, and as well is not affected by friction or acceleration falling through a gravity well because light objects do not fall as fast as heavy objects).
  • The inhuma Fava dies by freezing when exposed to winter cold. Winter temperatures are much warmer than temperatures in the upper atmosphere, or interplanetary space.
  • The inhuma Jahlee who claims to have trained for interplanetary travel in the upper atmosphere is unable to withstand a winter night, in shelter, with a fire, needing extra fuel for her fire in some cases, and in another case needs to use the Rajan for warmth and has to abandon her bed, both of which contradict an ability to survive in the upper atmosphere or through interplanetary space. As well, inhumi throughout the novels are repeatedly stated and shown as manipulative, deceptive, and strongly desire to keep their secrets from humans (to the point of attacking or threatening to attack the protagonist). Throughout the novels inhumu are described as a type of reptile, scaled, and have difficulty dealing with cold temperatures.
  • At no time in any of the novels of The Book of the Long Sun, or The Book of the Short Sun, are inhumi actually shown to travel between planets in this way, only the claim is made by inhumu and the general "common knowledge" belief of the people is stated.

The Second Theory[edit]

  • "The landers were intended to return to the Whorl for more colonists. Patera Quetzal could have boarded a much earlier lander that did so, a lander whose departure was unknown to the Crew..."

At the end of On Blue's Waters, inhumi are shown to control a lander through cooperation with humans, and use it to travel between Green and Blue during the time of conjunction. They use this lander and with the humans in Pajarocu to kidnap other humans and bring them back to Green, using a return to the Whorl as a cover story to lure humans to Pajarocu for the trip. The inhumu Krait seeks to find Pajarocu for voyage on this lander, with the cover story of wanting to hunt in the Whorl, with knowledge that it was controlled by inhumi and bound for Green. Thus at least one lander is in use to ferry inhumi between Blue and Green, as well as bring captive humans, but does not substantiate their presence on the Whorl pre-colonization (68 years before the events of the novels). The lander-transit theory is then demonstrated to be true, though the Rajan was theorizing in regards to travel to the Whorl, this lander is used to travel between Blue and Green during conjunction and is the only means of transit shown taken by inhumi in the novels.

The Third Theory[edit]

  • "A third possibility (I thought) was that a group of inhumi had built a lander of their own, in which they had traveled to the Whorl, and that after arriving they had separated to hunt.

Inhumi throughout The Book of the Short Sun are stated to be unable to use tools, and lack the nervous system development to coordinate fine motor skills. Krait states he is unable to fire Horn's slug gun, though he has bartered for it, he calls it useless to him. Fava has been able to learn to write, but writes in a childish scrawl which is surprising to the Rajan in that it represented a high degree of fine motor control for an inhuma to even perform this task. The lack of manual dexterity makes it difficult for inhumi to have any sort of technology based society of their own. The Rajan immediately states the argument against the third theory: "[...] we knew frighteningly little about them. They did not appear to make weapons for themselves, or to build houses or boats, or any such thing—but appearances may be deceiving."

Explanation from Return to the Whorl[edit]

Return to the Whorl finally advances an explanation for the interplanetary travel of the inhumi is given which is mostly exclusive of the theories advanced in On Blue's Waters. First (pp. 232) the Neighbor Windcloud states that he had visited the Whorl, "I was one of those who boarded your whorl when it neared our sun".

The Neighbors exhibit an ability to live in a different phase to the humans and inhumi in the novels, they can be seen by looking through the Rajan's ring, or when they wish to be seen on Blue or Green, and are able to send Horn's spirit through the void to join with Silk in Silk's body and take up residence there. They travel at will between these phases and demonstrate these powers without any explanation given in the books.

Page 235 and 236 finally offer the reader a full explanation. Vadsig comments on wanting to go to the Whorl to see where her people came from, and states, "There the Vanished People went? [...] To greet us it was?" The Rajan (who advanced the previous three theories) now gives an explanation: "You might put it so, but they were sensible enough to find out a good deal about us -- and infect us with inhumi --". This answers the question of how inhumi got to the Whorl, which was by being brought by the Neighbors deliberately to infect humanity. The Neighbors, once infected with inhumi were unable to separate them from their own society, implying this is a permanent condition: "Many had left these whorls already, fleeing the inhumi, but taking the inhumi with them."

The rationale for the Neighbors' actions is provided next:

"It was a small price to pay for two whorls, and it enabled the Neighbors to gauge much more accurately the differences between our race and their own."

The Rajan first explains to Vadsig that she can never see herself, she can only see her own reflection in a mirror. Thus if she were to compare her beauty to another woman's, she should not look at that woman, but at that woman's reflection in a mirror, and that images were distorted, making this a fair comparison. The Rajan then says: "That is what the Neighbors did. Knowing what their own inhumi were like, they gave us ours so they might compare the two. I wish I know what they concluded, though I know what they did." They gave the worlds of Green and Blue to humanity approximately 68 years after exposing them to the inhumi.

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