Subject: (urth) Pike's sacrifice

From: James Wynn <crushtv at hotpop.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 16:35:54 +0000

Zx wrote:

> "- dead Patera Pike mumbling prayers as he slit the throat of
> a speckled rabbit he himself had bought."
>
> This seems to me to represent a vison or perception of a
> moment in Pa. Pike's past life, rather than the appearences
> of his shade elsewhere in the book.

Blattid responds:
Correct. A few pages later, when he explains to Blood that
he is the help sent in response to Pa. Pike's prayers, Silk
begins by saying that he saw Pike praying for help to save
the manteion. This would be the experience of seeing that,
of seeing what is clearly a moment in the "temporal" past,
relative to the "temporal" moment in which Silk's timeline
is interrupted by the "eternal" experience of enlightenment.

Crush interjects:
But what may not have been pointed out is that "rabbits" are appropriate
sacrifices to Kypris.
This suggests "when" Pike's sacrifice occurred (shortly after his rendezvous
with Rose), which explains why he would appeal to Kypris.

"But, Crush, doesn't the text tell us Pike appealed to the Outsider?"
Of course it does. And we are also told that Kypris cannot help becoming "in
a sense" the Outsider.

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