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Earlier, I posted an argument that the Whorl does not leave very quickly, but decades after Silk and Co. depart (to be pedantic, we don't know when they arrive at the Whorl, or if …
17 Apr 2001, 08:53
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on 2/19/00 5:43 AM, Allan Lloyd at lloyd at nexus.kc3.co.uk wrote: A very good post, Allan. I actually raised some of these points in a post entitled "Horn as antihero?" (in the Who…
16 Apr 2001, 23:05
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Unlike Vizcacha, I wasn't disappointed by the revelation of the narrator's identity; and I was, conversely, disappointed by a number of other things. But I don't think that Wolfe i…
12 Apr 2001, 22:34
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But, as I've pointed out, we do have an actual statement, and it doesn't fit your scenario. Daisy tells us that when she saw Silk for the last time, the wedding was "a few days ag…
12 Apr 2001, 20:21
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Do you mean Horn's Silk in TBOTLS, or Silkhorn's (i. e. the narrator's) Silkhorn? It's the latter I was talking about. And I didn't find either Silkhorn's or Hoof'n'Hide's Silkho…
12 Apr 2001, 11:44
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I like this, though I don't know if Wolfe intended it. But surely Purgatory would be the Whorl _and_ Blue, with the conversation with Remora corresponding to the final purging of …
12 Apr 2001, 11:43
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But we did, I think. Jahlee says she doesn't know who the boy [Severian] is, and Merryn says "'He's my brother. We're brothers and sisters, we witches and the torturers.'" (267) …
11 Apr 2001, 17:40
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To be even more plain and firm, I don't see any evidence that Wolfe was thinking about utopias at all when he wrote TBOTSS. None of the communities Silkhorn encounters is remotely…
11 Apr 2001, 12:34
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'Fraid not; your theory won't jibe with Horn's statement that the Secret "is a weapon too heavy for our hands," and that the Neighbors knew it, but could not wield it (IGJ, 125). …
09 Apr 2001, 09:53
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My immediate reaction is that I don't believe Wolfe is a utopian, even a "conservative" one; I don't believe Wolfe advocates "Natural Man" or the "Noble Savage"; and while the para…
08 Apr 2001, 20:35
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While I don't have the book with me, so can't comment on this particular passage (which was the subject of discussion earlier), I would say that passages like these are the Silk in…
06 Apr 2001, 10:14
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I'd like to be able to agree with this, since I don't believe Silk-in-Pig has been downloaded into Silk's body either. But I can't. Just because the divine Silk is linked with Pa…
04 Apr 2001, 21:15
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Do you have any references for 2? Yes, Horn clearly knows that he died on Green, that he is in a different body, and that everybody thinks he's Silk. But I don't remember any pass…
04 Apr 2001, 21:01
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Then why not include Horn's conversations on his time on Whorl as conversations, like the Hoof-penned chapters? This would make perfect sense if the editors were writing a novel. …
02 Apr 2001, 20:04
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Horn can't be literally saying that Pas is in him, because if he knew that Pas was in him, he'd know that Silk was in him, and he doesn't. Inclito's gloss is accurate as far as Ho…
01 Apr 2001, 21:38
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Presumably it was Scylla-in-Oreb who suggested it, as bait to get Horn to take her to Urth. Not necessarily; she could give Horn some sort of invocation which could call up the Mo…
16 Mar 2001, 17:00
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It may not be a coincidence. We know that Cilinia had pledged herself to the Greater Scylla, who undoubtedly knew of her sister's presence on Blue. Cilinia could have somehow conv…
15 Mar 2001, 10:07
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I'm not quite clear what your point is. It seems you either believe that the Mother only speaks the Neighbors' languague, so Horn would have to know it to communicate with her, or…
13 Mar 2001, 22:06
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Where? Not in Chapter 23 of IGJ, where Horn gives Hide the lesson on the inhumi and the Neighbors. I may be missing something again, but I don't see the problem here. The Mother…
12 Mar 2001, 21:59
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Though Jahlee's words aren't entirely clear, it seems to be a little more than just that: each inhumu/a derives its "mind" from a specific human whose blood its parent drank. I ag…
12 Mar 2001, 21:37
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BMeyer wrote (but omitting the "about"): Yes, that's The Secret, as the following sentence shows. He wants Nettle to know the Secret (so she will understand his relationship with…
11 Mar 2001, 00:27
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This may just be something I missed, but in New Viron "Father" is talking to Hoof about Scylla, "and I asked him if there had ever been a real Scylla. 'Yes,' he said. 'Yes, that's…
09 Mar 2001, 15:01
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Whoops--that little fact had completely slipped my mind. So your final sentence here is of course correct. I would still suggest, though, that this time period is not necessarily…
07 Mar 2001, 23:41
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No and no. On the night he arrives in New Viron, Silkhorn makes his final "astral journey." Hoof tells us that "After that, Hide and Vadsig came ... for the wedding" (397); we ar…
07 Mar 2001, 15:51
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A very thought-provoking post. I have my doubts that you'll be able to naturalize the children's authorship of the third-person sections, but I've made some comments below. No Pa…
07 Mar 2001, 12:26
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[snip] It's not clear to me why you regard the computer model as conclusive evidence that Horn lives. It's quite possible to completely purge an invading virus (or operating syst…
25 Feb 2001, 20:59
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Certainly not; I read it that way myself until about a week ago. It was reading Allan Lloyd's letter that gave me the idea of seeing it as fantasy, and I saw that it could provide…
20 Feb 2001, 22:13
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I've worried before about the apparent impenetrability of some of Wolfe's mysteries, but I think your specific complaints here are a bit off base. In the first place, it's a bit e…
20 Feb 2001, 09:08
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I also found that scene very powerful. That is a good point, and I admit I'm not sure why Silk is in such a hurry to be off. (I'll post further thoughts on this separately.) But…
19 Feb 2001, 23:46
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Good question. There are actually two questions: why does Horn's spirit go away, and why does it go away when it does? Both are mysteries. I can't help thinking it must have som…
18 Feb 2001, 20:40
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I'm not sure how I came to be the Official Defender of Silkhorn's Silkiness. But since nobody else has yet picked up the gauntlet you've thrown down, I guess it's up to me. My fir…
18 Feb 2001, 13:20
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I may be missing your point completely, but it seems to me that their reactions aren't so different. In fact, I'd say that "Horn"'s behavior supports my position. He first tells …
16 Feb 2001, 20:10
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I agree with all of this; in fact, the Neighbor says he will send Horn's spirit "into someone whose own spirit is dying." I think that this means just what you say above: that Sil…
16 Feb 2001, 10:54
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True; but this is irrelevant to the point I was trying to make, which is that the representation of the "Horn" of the Whorl resembles any representation of Silk, or of the Silkifie…
15 Feb 2001, 18:54
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No doubt Horn could impersonate Silk's manner of speaking. But why would he want to do so consistently? He doesn't know, or he denies, he's in Silk's body. He is aware that ever…
15 Feb 2001, 10:44
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The suspicion had occurred to me that "Horn" was wrong in thinking that the inhumi thought that their secret could be used to destroy them (since I couldn't find any place where an…
14 Feb 2001, 22:10
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Indeed; and not only his knowledge, but the sententiousness with which he dispenses it. He does, in Chapter 12, with Olivine, an exegesis that takes several pages. Very Silkian. …
14 Feb 2001, 21:59
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I hope you won't be offended if I ask you where this intuition comes from. I'm sure you understand the book much better than me, but I honestly don't recall anything which even sug…
13 Feb 2001, 13:07
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As opposed to a godling killing Silk by nicking him to death? Like many who attempt suicide, Silk 's courage failed him at the sticking-point and he only went through with it half…
12 Feb 2001, 10:18
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He says he killed Horn "in a sense," which is somewhat different. I took him to mean that by recovering his own identity, he destroyed the Horn-persona; or else that his reviving …
11 Feb 2001, 23:15
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Tartaros is indeed mentioned in the text of RTTW, on p. 18. I distinctly remember him being mentioned elsewhere, though I can't find the place now; IIRC, it was in a discussion of…
10 Feb 2001, 15:05
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In the first place, three of the editors are from an impoverished colony, and at least two are from a family that's not well off; the fourth is a servant. Under these conditions i…
10 Feb 2001, 14:21
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No: the editors write: "He [the protagonist] left us no written record of his brief sojourns in Old Viron and the West Pole, but he spoke of them often. In this volume we have re-…
08 Feb 2001, 12:33
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IIRC, at one point in TBOTLS Kypris (or somebody) offers to upload Silk into Mainframe, where he would become a god and be linked somehow to Pas (I forget the details). Evidently …
07 Feb 2001, 23:33
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The person we have been thinking of as Horn in Silk's body is actually Silk with Horn's memories. Silk could not admit to himself that he was Silk because that would mean admittin…
07 Feb 2001, 23:18
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Without wishing to belabor this question, I'll just say that I don't find any of these readings more plausible than my own (that Weer's response is a sign that he is not fully in …
15 Dec 2000, 19:31
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I had missed that. The passage reads: "At one-thirty I enter the Cassionsville and Kanakessee Valley Bank Building through bronze doors, more bronze doors for the elevator, and a …
11 Dec 2000, 21:19
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I was aware of that. But that obviously isn't what the nurse meant, and I read Weer's comment as indicating that he doesn't know that's not what she meant. That happens to be tru…
11 Dec 2000, 21:10
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I think we pretty much agree on what elements of your model are and are not grounded in the text (I've snipped the ones you say are not). I agree Weer's death is grounded in the t…
09 Dec 2000, 10:42
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He thinks his the elm tree falling is unusual, I think; he thinks his "stroke" is unusual; he thinks coming across the Persian room is unusual. And he is definitely agitated when …
08 Dec 2000, 18:39
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