# Digest whorl.v012.n032 *The Whorl list — 4 messages, 3 voices, 30 Jan 2001* > 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. --- ### akt *30 Jan 2001, 20:19* 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. --- ### Michael Straight *31 Jan 2001, 14:04 · follows akt* > On Tue, 30 Jan 2001 akt at attglobal.net wrote: > 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. 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. --- ### Alex David Groce *31 Jan 2001, 14:52 · follows Michael Straight* Rostrum said: > 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. 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ``` --- ### Michael Straight *31 Jan 2001, 16:23 · follows Alex David Groce* > On Wed, 31 Jan 2001, Alex David Groce wrote: > Rostrum said: >> 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. > 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? 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 *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ---