{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3897",
    "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": 3897,
    "subject": "Horn-Babbie/Ending of OBW",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2003-03-13T19:03:53+00:00",
    "last": "2003-03-13T19:03:53+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0303-3072@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Tom Foster",
        "address": "t.foster2 at ntlworld.com"
      },
      "date": "2003-03-13T19:03:53+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Horn-Babbie/Ending of OBW",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Just delurking briefly...  I'm currently rereading the Short Sun books\n(halfway through IGJ at present) and found the conclusion of OBW just as\nconfusing the second time round as the first.  I've read a lot of the\ndiscussions that have gone on through the list over the months, and thought\nthat a line from IGJ was interesting with respect to the Horn-into-Babbie /\nBabbie-into-Horn theories. The bit in question occurs when Incanto has been\nexplaining to Torda about Fava and Mora's spying activities. Green starts to\nimpinge on the room and Mucor appears in a stagnant pool:\n\n\"There you are, Silk. There you are, Horn. I've been looking everywhere for\nyou. Babbie came back without you, and Grandmother's worried\". (p147, IGJ)\n\nThis seems to make it fairly clear that both Silk and Horn are present in\nthe body of the narrator at this point in the story - I would have thought\nthat if Horn had 'gone into Babbie', or vice versa, then if anyone would\nknow, Mucor would. It doesn't rule out some sort of temporary displacement\nof personalities (souls?) in order to throw off the inhumi or something\nthough. It also seems odd that i) Babbie took so long to get back to Mucor,\nand ii) it took so long for Mucor to find Silk/Horn (though I guess this\ndepends on exactly when Babbie returned to her).\n\nApologies if anyone's already raised this point; if so, I must have missed\nit.  I'd love to hear any further thoughts on the OBW ending, or on what\nexactly had happened to Hyacinth and Silk immediately before Horn was sent\ninto Silk's body (this is perhaps the most infuriatingly obscure part of the\nbooks for me - there don't seem to be any clues elsewhere and the theories\nabout them having been attacked / Silk's self mutilation don't quite ring\ntrue). For what it's worth, I'm enjoying the books a lot more on second\nreading and am constantly reminded of just how great Wolfe is.\n\n\nTom"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}