Subject: (urth) Silk's narrative ubiquity

From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 17:32:07 +0000

Rostrum stated

> I have a
hard enough time believing that the Narrator recounted whole conversations
to them verbatim, much less that he told them in detail about all the
dreams he had in the Whorl. So I'm guessing that they made up this dream,
for "literary" reasons, forshadowing Silk-in-Pig, etc.

I said briefly before that I believe one of Silk's special attributes is his 
ability to inspire other people, who have not even met him, to write about him 
in a way that is true in spirit if not in letter.  He can affect Fava's story, 
enter it, and CHANGE details as she tells it. I believe that Silk has always 
had this power, from the first chapters of Nightside the Long Sun, when 
suddenly everybody knows he's been enlightened, even if he hasn't told many 
people yet.  Stories about Silk spread like wildfire.  I believe he has the 
power to inspire stories that reflect the truth, and that these dreams may not 
have been directly related to Hoof and Hide, but that his spirit works through 
them to produce these texts.  As I said, I asked Wolfe about this ability to 
influence the narrative of others, and he didn't deny it, and said that Silk 
would use this power for emphasis, not to hide anything in the portions he did 
not directly write.  My opinion for the factual status of the Book of the Long 
Sun is that Silk actually inspired it, and that it can therefore be relied 
upon even if Horn's information might have been inaccurate or skewed, whereas 
the narrative written about Horn by Silk and Horn together can not be entirely 
relied upon because the auto corrective powers of Silk do not extend to Horn's 
life.
I don't know if that helps ... I like the idea that the Book of the Long Sun 
parallels the conception of the gospels in that it is divinely inspired and 
true without suffering from the onus of literal truth (from a Catholic 
perspective, of course; and no offense to those who would maintain its literal 
truth as well -> the faults of the narrator as a fallible man could certainly 
creep into the narrative if it is not taken as "literal truth" without 
destroying the spiritual truth)
It is difficult to identify exactly what makes Silk so special ... obviously, 
his special gift is NOT his leadership skills, or he would not have faced such 
political problems from his closest friends as Calde of Viron, leading to his 
eventual resignation and exile.
Marc Aramini

--

---

From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 12:56:05 +0000

On Sun, 17 Feb 2002, maa32 wrote:

> I said briefly before that I believe one of Silk's special attributes
> is his ability to inspire other people, who have not even met him, to
> write about him in a way that is true in spirit if not in letter.

I kind of like this idea; it's not much harder to swollow than Mucor's
powers or the Narrator's dream travelling.

But if you're saying Horn-in-Silk really did have a dream about Jahlee
being his daughter and the mother of Krait, long before he'd ever dug
Jahlee up from the ground in Gaon, does Horn/Silk then have prophetic
dreams?  Are there others?  Why doesn't Horn/Silk recognize Jahlee when he
digs her up?  Why does Horn/Silk later seem unable to believe the idea
that Jahlee was the inhuma who bit Sinew?

-Rostrum

--