Subject: (urth) For Joe: every being of his kind

From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 05:31:39 +0000

Joe said:
>How has Horn been "every being of his kind"? (pg 272 pb OBW). This is said
        by the neighbour Horn to Horn before he is resurrected in Silk. Horn 
has
        been (so far) a son, student, lover, fighter, colonist, husband, 
father,
        mill builder, adulterer, sailor, quest taker....and more. Except for 
the
        last, many New Vironese men could probably claim to be all these 
things
        (replace miller with smith or cooper if you like).
        What do the writers mean by "his (?) search for the fabled town of 
Pajarocu"
        in the Afterword to RTTW (pg 409 tor hc).
        Typically, my analysis just brings up questions I can't answer but I 
have to
        say I like your theory more and more.

Well, I believe that Silk is the guy they are talking about at the end, that 
Horn has left him entirely by the end of writing On Blue's Waters, (note the 
change from negative descriptions to positive descriptions: "I should have 
mentioned his smile, etc etc") when he reposes under the tree and says goodbye 
to his family, going into Babbie. Therefore, "His (?) search for the fabled 
town of Pajarocu" was not done by the man they are talking about, Silk, but by 
Horn, a different man who was temporarily in Silk. Horn was the only one 
looking for Pajararocu.
As far as Silk being "every being of his kind", he has looked through the blue 
glass and sees the world as a holistic picture, and if his DNA has mixed with 
the trees when he fell in, then he has created a new race, and is every being 
of his kind by virtue of being both plant and human, but still being Horn.  
His DNA is then probably responsible for all the Vanished People that he 
encounters directly after that, before they begin feasting on others (they do 
get permission to come back ... "bwa ha ha.  We will eat you foolish 
humans")I'm not clear if the plant genome has entered into Horn and turned him 
into something like the Green man, to perpetuate a new species, but note that 
later Silk doesn't eat very much, and he is very sick in the cold weather.  Of 
course, I think his staff is feasting on him, but perhaps he is going through 
the winter blues that most plants undergo - I'm just not sure yet if Silk is 
the original green man through mixing with Horn or not.

Marc Aramini

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