{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2963",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2963,
    "subject": "Silk's narrative ubiquity",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "2002-02-17T17:32:07+00:00",
    "last": "2002-02-18T12:56:05+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0202-166@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "maa32",
        "address": "maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu"
      },
      "date": "2002-02-17T17:32:07+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Silk's narrative ubiquity",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Rostrum stated"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I have a"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "hard enough time believing that the Narrator recounted whole conversations\nto them verbatim, much less that he told them in detail about all the\ndreams he had in the Whorl. So I'm guessing that they made up this dream,\nfor \"literary\" reasons, forshadowing Silk-in-Pig, etc."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I said briefly before that I believe one of Silk's special attributes is his \nability to inspire other people, who have not even met him, to write about him \nin a way that is true in spirit if not in letter.  He can affect Fava's story, \nenter it, and CHANGE details as she tells it. I believe that Silk has always \nhad this power, from the first chapters of Nightside the Long Sun, when \nsuddenly everybody knows he's been enlightened, even if he hasn't told many \npeople yet.  Stories about Silk spread like wildfire.  I believe he has the \npower to inspire stories that reflect the truth, and that these dreams may not \nhave been directly related to Hoof and Hide, but that his spirit works through \nthem to produce these texts.  As I said, I asked Wolfe about this ability to \ninfluence the narrative of others, and he didn't deny it, and said that Silk \nwould use this power for emphasis, not to hide anything in the portions he did \nnot directly write.  My opinion for the factual status of the Book of the Long \nSun is that Silk actually inspired it, and that it can therefore be relied \nupon even if Horn's information might have been inaccurate or skewed, whereas \nthe narrative written about Horn by Silk and Horn together can not be entirely \nrelied upon because the auto corrective powers of Silk do not extend to Horn's \nlife.\nI don't know if that helps ... I like the idea that the Book of the Long Sun \nparallels the conception of the gospels in that it is divinely inspired and \ntrue without suffering from the onus of literal truth (from a Catholic \nperspective, of course; and no offense to those who would maintain its literal \ntruth as well -> the faults of the narrator as a fallible man could certainly \ncreep into the narrative if it is not taken as \"literal truth\" without \ndestroying the spiritual truth)\nIt is difficult to identify exactly what makes Silk so special ... obviously, \nhis special gift is NOT his leadership skills, or he would not have faced such \npolitical problems from his closest friends as Calde of Viron, leading to his \neventual resignation and exile.\nMarc Aramini"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0202-171@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Straight",
        "address": "straight at email.unc.edu"
      },
      "date": "2002-02-18T12:56:05+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Silk's narrative ubiquity",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0202-166@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "On Sun, 17 Feb 2002, maa32 wrote:\nI said briefly before that I believe one of Silk's special attributes\nis his ability to inspire other people, who have not even met him, to\nwrite about him in a way that is true in spirit if not in letter."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I kind of like this idea; it's not much harder to swollow than Mucor's\npowers or the Narrator's dream travelling.\n\nBut if you're saying Horn-in-Silk really did have a dream about Jahlee\nbeing his daughter and the mother of Krait, long before he'd ever dug\nJahlee up from the ground in Gaon, does Horn/Silk then have prophetic\ndreams?  Are there others?  Why doesn't Horn/Silk recognize Jahlee when he\ndigs her up?  Why does Horn/Silk later seem unable to believe the idea\nthat Jahlee was the inhuma who bit Sinew?\n\n-Rostrum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}