[1072] How could it be anything else?

I feel like saying to Coyote, "If human intellect is so bad, how can you even have this conversation if it didn't exist?"

To which I suspect he would reply, "If it didn't exist, this conversation would not be necessary."

Now this is interesting. I find anything about the difference between human perceptions and actual reality to be fascinating. And how something not-human would see that reality.
The only way this could get better is if we got the perspective of a superhuman intelligence such as a strong AI. I wonder if Coyote would qualify as such?

Is it me, or is that "[Gunnerkrigg Court] is man's endeavour to become God!" remark getting meaningful?

I think it's a bit unfair.

The forest clearly thinks humans are doing something unnatural and twisting the world in to shapes that don't exist. It's not like humans bend, alter, or make the laws of physics. Those were always there. What allows a rock to become a spear is not man's doing. It's only man that uncovered the way to do it. Similarly how man can get fire from stone. Man is doing nothing but uncovering what was there. All these things are part of the world as it exists. If they did not, science could not find anything about it.

Seems like a gross misrepresentation of what's going on.

"The shape of a woman. A spark of inspiration!" gave me a thought. Annie is descended from a fire spirit, right? What if fire spirits don't exist either -- that would mean Annie, in part, doesn't exist!

Rex: You may be right on that.

okaaaaaaaaay...

Is Coyote saying that humans have been reading between the lines too much, needlessly assigning greater meanings to mundane things and thus giving form and power to said meanings?

Coyote's mention of the court being man's endeavour to become God is really starting to take on a more literal feel here. Leads me to believe the court's main purpose is trying to unravel through hard science how mankind's superstitions and beliefs made beings like coyote exist. In solving that self-made riddle mankind will unlock the secrets of godhood or something.

On that same line of thought, wouldn't that make Annie the result of a science experiment? I don't know how old the court is exactly but if it existed prior to the ancestral union that Annie is descended from it seems likely that the court may have had a hand in making it happen.

EDIT: Aaand I'm now guilty of reading between the lines as well. Curse you Coyote!!!

But it has saved us even more.

When you look at the bunch of berry bushes and discern the pattern of a hidden lion (even though there is in fact no lion present), you go elsewhere for your food. Generally, not a big deal.

When you look at the bunch of berry bushes and do NOT discern the pattern of a hidden lion (but there is in fact a hidden lion), you have a big problem.

We are the descendants of those who were more prone to spotting imaginary lions, than to overlooking actual lions.

So it seems Coyote is in the process of saying that he was spawned from belief. But that does not imply that Coyote is sustained by belief. Digger has such gods.

I think it might be as simple as humans need a super-important reason for death, or for blaming their death on something other than the biological. This story is clearly metaphorical, I think, and about the paradox of the human mind KNOWING the simple reason things happen (scientifically) and our desire, sometimes need, to glorify it. Therefore we glorify ourselves.

Commendable profound...ness ;D I enjoyed it.

Long time reader, etc.

I'm reminded of the end of Chapter 26, when Coyote remarked on the way others see Ysengrin, how he sees himself, and how he truly is. Is this part of the point he's making? Is Ysengrin prone to the same "disease" as the humans in that regard? That might be why it makes him so angry at the humans; despite his feelings to the contrary, his tendency to mimic them in several ways makes him more like them than he wants to admit.

Also, having read many of the forum discussions up to this point, I couldn't help but appreciate the irony of how the point Coyote is making here could easily be applied to the speculations made. Not that that's a bad thing, but just kind of a funny parallel.

I guess Ysengrin doesn't like this secret because it would mean he serves a creation of man. But then how does this affect psychopomps?