{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4235", "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": 4235, "subject": "What does Horn look like?", "messages": 7, "voices": 5, "first": "2004-10-02T17:43:16+00:00", "last": "2004-10-06T22:42:10+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "<000501c4a8e1$b8cb3690$6400a8c0@wynnhouse>", "from": { "name": "James Wynn", "address": "thewynns at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2004-10-02T17:43:16+00:00", "subject": "(urth) What does Horn look like?", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I got the idea while reading \"The Book of the Short Sun\" that Horn was \n(originally) balding. Is this accurate?\n\nThe cover of \"On Blue's Waters\" shows a Horn looking quite young, with lots \nof hair and a beard. He looks like Richard Chamberlain in \"Shogun\".\n\nThe cover of \"In Green's Jungles\" shows a Horn walking with a the Neighbor \nafter he lands on Green. He has long white hair and is balding. This was my \nunderstanding of the way Horn looked.\n\nThe cover of \"Return to the Whorl\" shows the exact same character on the \nWhorl talking to the godling. Of course, this character *should* have looked \nlike Silk.\n\nSo what's going on here. The covers of these books are unimpressive enough \nthat they could have at least been *accurate* to the story.\n\nSo... what does Horn actually look like? What does Silk look like?\n\n~ Crush " } ] }, { "message_id": "<20041002.215853.74752432.christopher_culver@yahoo.com>", "from": { "name": "Christopher Culver", "address": "christopher_culver at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2004-10-03T11:36:40+00:00", "subject": "(urth) What does Horn look like?", "in_reply_to": "<000501c4a8e1$b8cb3690$6400a8c0@wynnhouse>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "From: \"James Wynn\" \nSo... what does Horn actually look like? What does Silk look like?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Horn was only 35 years old or so at the beginning of OBW. While life\nwas hard on the frontier planet of Blue, resulting in Horn having the\ntone of a crotchety old man, I don't think that by 35-40ish he could\nhave had white hair. Instead, the picture of him as balding is more\nprobable. Silk could have had white, long hair (in tBotLS we're told\nhis hair is fairly long), but even he would have been pretty young, so\nlife must have been really tough on the Whorl to make him look so\nancient before the age of 50.\n\nChristopher Culver" } ] }, { "message_id": "<000501c4a9ab$377b8480$6400a8c0@wynnhouse>", "from": { "name": "James Wynn", "address": "thewynns at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2004-10-03T17:45:32+00:00", "subject": "(urth) What does Horn look like?", "in_reply_to": "<20041002.215853.74752432.christopher_culver@yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Horn was only 35 years old or so at the beginning of OBW. While life\nwas hard on the frontier planet of Blue, resulting in Horn having the\ntone of a crotchety old man, I don't think that by 35-40ish he could\nhave had white hair. Instead, the picture of him as balding is more\nprobable. Silk could have had white, long hair (in tBotLS we're told\nhis hair is fairly long), but even he would have been pretty young, so\nlife must have been really tough on the Whorl to make him look so\nancient before the age of 50." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, life was no picnic on Blue, either. I remember reading \"Angela's \nAshes\" as the author described his parents sitting by the fire clacking \ntheir false teeth, and I realized that at that point in the story they were \nin their late 20s or very early 30s. Yet I had already come to think of them \nwell into middle age. They were worn out well before their time. So it is \nnot inconceivable that Horn looked like a middle-age man by his \nmid-thirties. But the covers to IGJ and RttW describe very specific events \nin the story in which there is no real question whose body we are looking \nat. Yet it seems that one of them is a mistake. OTTH the character in the \ncover art is not the sort to make books fly off the shelves, so I'm thinking \nthe design was not pure marketing trumping the author and story. Which makes \nme think Wolfe was involved.\n\nI was hoping someone here would know definitively if the cover art were a \nmistake that was unapproved by Wolfe. Or......do Horn and Silk look \nverrrrry similar? Either way, I have always considered it an important \nnarrative point that Horn was balding so how he looked...whether it was he \nor Silk that was balding is kind of important (to me).\n\n~ Crush " } ] }, { "message_id": "<0D22E736-15B5-11D9-9BDA-0003939CE29C@earthlink.net>", "from": { "name": "Don Doggett", "address": "harlekin at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2004-10-03T20:26:24+00:00", "subject": "(urth) What does Horn look like?", "in_reply_to": "<000501c4a9ab$377b8480$6400a8c0@wynnhouse>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sunday, October 3, 2004, at 05:43 PM, James Wynn wrote:\n\nI was hoping someone here would know definitively if the cover art \nwere a mistake that was unapproved by Wolfe. Or......do Horn and Silk \nlook verrrrry similar? Either way, I have always considered it an \nimportant narrative point that Horn was balding so how he \nlooked...whether it was he or Silk that was balding is kind of \nimportant (to me)." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Don replies:\n\nI highly doubt the cover art was approved by Wolfe. The cover for \nRttW (besides being hideous) is the result of a misreading of the \npassage where Silkhorn is picked up by the godling. It describes the \ngodling's thumb as looking like a head with a curved hat (thumbnail). \nSo I wouldn't look to the cover art for any insight." } ] }, { "message_id": "<001701c4aa65$effcd6c0$8bfdaccf@GWB>", "from": { "name": "Gregg", "address": "gwbest328 at rcn.com" }, "date": "2004-10-04T16:00:27+00:00", "subject": "(urth) What does Horn look like?", "in_reply_to": "<0D22E736-15B5-11D9-9BDA-0003939CE29C@earthlink.net>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Regarding the comments about the misleading cover art, it occurs to me that\nJim Burns might have been working from an earlier draft of the Short Sun\nbooks. Or, maybe he took the job without having the text at all. Some cover\nartists want to read the books before they will do the cover, others don't." } ] }, { "message_id": "<004801c4aa69$e5607b50$4108a9c0@pointserve.com>", "from": { "name": "James Wynn", "address": "thewynns at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2004-10-04T16:28:14+00:00", "subject": "(urth) What does Horn look like?", "in_reply_to": "<001701c4aa65$effcd6c0$8bfdaccf@GWB>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Well, it seems from the pictures that he must have read something of it or was given specifics on what to paint.\n\nIt seems to me that there must be a story there regarding these covers for neither Wolfe nor his editor to be involved in the decision process.\n ----- Original Message ----- \n From: Gregg \n To: urth at urth.net \n Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 6:00 PM\n Subject: Re: (urth) What does Horn look like?\n\n\n Regarding the comments about the misleading cover art, it occurs to me that Jim Burns might have been working from an earlier draft of the Short Sun books. Or, maybe he took the job without having the text at all. Some cover artists want to read the books before they will do the cover, others don't.\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n _______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "<000a01c4ac30$61f3ecc0$973ec6d8@rclackey.stic.net>", "from": { "name": "Roy C. Lackey", "address": "rclackey at stic.net" }, "date": "2004-10-06T22:42:10+00:00", "subject": "(urth) What does Horn look like?", "in_reply_to": "<004801c4aa69$e5607b50$4108a9c0@pointserve.com>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Crush queried:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "I got the idea while reading \"The Book of the Short Sun\" that Horn was\n(originally) balding. Is this accurate?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Yes. Ignore the book covers. I don't remember Horn's hair color, but it\nisn't white. This is what Horn looked like when he began his quest (It is,\nof course, Silkhorn who wrote):\n\n\"They had brought food, tents, and trunks full of clothing, expecting to\nspend a week or more on Lizard; but in my books Silk was an account that had\nnever been closed, one so large that it dwarfed all others. At fifteen, I\nhad thought him the greatest of great men. At thirty-five, only a little\ntaller, thick-bodied and nearly bald, I thought him a great man still.\"\n(OBW, p.65)\n\nThis is what Silk(Horn)'s body looked like, right after he left Gaon. He's\nthen in his early forties.\n\n\"Saw my own reflection standing in the water holding up my spear, wild white\nhair and empty socket, lined and worried old face.\" (OBW, p.381)\n\n-Roy" } ] } ] }