Subject: (urth) food of the narrator

From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 22:45:40 +0000

Some have recently speculated on the obviously disturbing lack of appetite in 
the narrator of the Short Sun books.  Remember that in the chilly snows of In 
Green's Jungles the narrator becomes deathly ill.  At first I ascribed this to 
being fed on by his liana staff.  
My theory is that somehow the blood of the narrator has assimilated some plant 
like qualities that allow him to feed directly from the sun.  If this is the 
case, then the link between the narrator and Severian becomes even more 
explicit: the narrator is powered by Severian.  If Silk is in fact one of the 
first green men, then he no longer needs to eat and can simply pretend to eat.
 How were these factors introduced to his blood stream in particular?  We have 
a case for the physical body of Horn being subjected to sharing blood with the 
Vanished People (trees) when He Pen Sheep talks to him in On Blue's Waters and 
says that Horn is a vanished person because he has traded blood with them 
(which, I would argue, occurs when he falls in the pit and shares DNA, but is 
somehow resurrected).  How were these elements introduced into the body of 
Silk?  Through the soul of Horn? When he sits under the big tree at the end of 
On blue's Waters? I would argue that the wounds Silk has on his hands and arms 
at the very beginning of Return to the Whorl, which seemed to be caused by 
some "brush", actually introduced this into his bloodstream (through tree 
contact), which might have opened a path for Horn to travel into him in spirit 
(in other words, I am rejecting the Silk's suicide hypothesis in favor of a 
Tree Attack).  When Silk runs out of the house, he runs into a big tree.  I 
think Silk's appetite may have been affected by the sun-harnessing quality of 
his mixed blood --> What does this say about his relationship to Severian?  If 
Severian is the new sun that brings light to mankind, and Horn and Silk 
together form one of the first men who can be sustained by that light, are 
they some kind of new Adam to the more Godlike Severian? Or does Severian 
serve Silk, since Silk in some ways is the good father figure of mankind, who 
guides how he will write his narrative and advises him? And how the heck are 
Triskele and Silk related?
OK, I guess you have to buy my tree ideas to believe this.  At least I've 
convinced a few of us ... but when the sun is not around, Silk ails and the 
inhumu (the vines of the trees) tend to die rather easily.
Marc Aramini

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