Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v012.n032

From: akt <akt at attglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 20:19:06 +0000

Ratty, Mark Millman is surely right--you are thinking of fairies and
cold iron, and we ain't got none of those here. Inhumi have no
supernatural resistances or weaknesses; they are animals like us. (And
unlike a couple of other types of critters.)

Rostrum, IMO, is also right about Horn/Silk's eating problem, so evident
in IGJ; I posited the same observation (I point out delicately) several
times quite a while ago.

Welcome, James,
> James (is anyone called Gerbil yet?)

Richard Gere?

No, just kidding--it's yours!

-alga

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 14:04:01 +0000

> in IGJ; I posited the same observation (I point out delicately) several

I may have missed your post in the archives, but most of the discussion I
saw assumed it had something to do with Silk's personality influencing
Horn, whereas I was pointing out that it could just be a physical
limitation of Silk's body and prove nothing about how much of Silk's
personality still remains.  

For that matter, it could also be explained by Horn having decided to take
up fasting as part of his Imitatio Silki.

In fact, the only indication I can see that any of Silk's personality is
still in there is that bit where he refers to Seawrack's singing as being
Hyacinth's.

-Rostrum

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From: Alex David Groce <alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 14:52:58 +0000

> still in there is that bit where he refers to Seawrack's singing as being

Even limiting things to OBW and IGJ, I disagree.  To name an instance
that comes to mind immediately, without moving to the bookshelf, what
about the last few lines of OBW, about catching the ball?

--
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 16:23:14 +0000

> about the last few lines of OBW, about catching the ball?

As I posted before, there's no reason to think Silk would even remember
anything about catching the ball and winning the game - at the time he was
preoccupied with his enlightenment (note his lame response when the boys
ask him what was the lesson in it).  Horn, on the other hand, obviously
remembers it well, since it's the first scene in his book about Silk.

The line makes sense as a metaphor Horn uses to sum up the philosophy he
articulated at the time to Silk: "You were their best player.  It wouldn't
have been fair to them if you hadn't played your best."  Which he has
lived out by helping Gaon.  Which he continues to preach to Mora.  It's a
statement that Horn has, like Silk, used his gifts to help the weak.

The line makes no sense read as "Silk" literally remembering winning that
game a long time ago.  Why would he mention it?   Does Silk habitually
reminisce about his atheletic triumphs over children?

-Rostrum