Subject: (urth) In a Pig's Eye

From: Charles Reed <cmreed at link.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 13:46:53 +0000

Howdy everyone.

I've been following the pretty high-level discussions going on
concerning Silk-in-Pig, Silk-23 vs Silk-43, etc.  But at the risk of
sounding both mundane and stupid, I need to ask a question regarding
Silk giving his eye to Pig.

Pig is a (smallish) giant, but a giant nonetheless.  He's what, maybe
four or five feet taller than Silk?  Given this, Pig's head might
reasonably be assumed to be twice as big (in diameter) as Silk's head,
with eye sockets proportionately sized.  How plausible is it, then, that
Silk's eye could be successfully transplanted into Pig's eye socket?  I
don't pretend to know much about advanced physiological concepts, but it
seems to me that Silk's eyeball would really have a lot of room in which
to flop around.

Kind-of gives me the willies to think about it.  :-)

Any thoughts?

Charles

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 16:25:48 +0000

Charles Reed wrote ...

... well, I mainly wanted to comment on the Subject: line. Oy! Is
there any reasonable doubt that (once it's been pointed out) this 
is just another example of Wolfe's carefully hidden sense of humor?

Who let the Wolfe out? Who? Who? Who?

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From: StoneOx17 <stoneox17 at aol.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 23:17:38 +0000

"Charles Reed" <cmreed at link.com> writes

> Any thoughts?

Wolfe addresses this (possibly by accident, although I doubt it) when 
Silk/Horn is talking to the godling.  Silk is talking:

"Oreb can see even when it seems to me that there's no light at all."

There was no reply, and he wondered whether the godling had heard him.  
"Oreb's eyes are larger than mine," he continued gamely, "though Oreb is so 
much smaller.  Your eyes seem very small to me, but that's only because they 
are small in proportion to your face.  Each must be the size of Oreb's head."

The lesson to be taken from this, of course, is that the size of the eyes of 
giants and godlings increases disproportionately slowly, so Pig's eyes could 
be only slightly larger than Silk's.  

Until Charles asked his question, I had assumed that the discussion of the 
size of the godling's eyes was just incidental detail, and/or speculation on 
how physical proportions would change in giants (after the excerpt above we 
find that the godling's reaction time and speech are slower than Silk's).  
Now, I see that Wolfe's also very cleverly slipped in the answer to an 
objection someone might raise about an event that happens half a book later.  
I am impressed!

-- Stone Ox

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