{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1116", "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": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 1116, "subject": "RTTW questions", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2001-02-08T16:08:24+00:00", "last": "2001-02-08T18:41:07+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Pat O'Leary", "address": "poleary at cecom.com" }, "date": "2001-02-08T16:08:24+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) RTTW questions", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Fascinating stuff, buds.\n\nSome questions that continue to puzzle me...and some comments...\n\n1. Why was the farmer who gave Silk/horn the seed so fearful/hostile/violent toward him?\n\n2. Was the sacrifice of animals instead of people begun when Pas realized his renegade children were\nhiding in them?\nI felt this was hinted at somewhere in RTTW--very subtly.\n\n3. Why does Maytera Marble say, \"Oh Scylla!\" when she gets her new eye and sight back?\n\n4. Aren't each of the letters that open each volume lies?\n\nOBW: An Inhumi trap. Something like \"Come to Offworld where a land of golden opportunity awaits!\"\nIGJ: Inclito's (Or is it Silk/horn's) misinformation about his war capabilities. To induce the Duko to\nunderestimate their forces, or to inspire an allegiance from one of the wavering towns?\nRTTW: Silk/Horn impersonating a comatose Jahlee (in order to gain physical proximity for a dream\njourney that will save her).\n\nThat's sort of how I read them. If this is the case then each letter is a formal overture of the\ncentral narrative method: Impersonation. One person telling another's story. And the overreaching irony\nis that the narrator is not who he appears to be. Is unknown even to himself.\n\nBy the way--at the risk of being obvious--Was not this the most amazing novel?\n\nPatrick O'Leary\n\n\n\n\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alex David Groce", "address": "alex_groce at gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu" }, "date": "2001-02-08T18:41:07+00:00", "subject": "Re: (whorl) RTTW questions", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Clearly I need to reread it all again. Whether \"it all\" means back to\nSHADOW or starting at OBW, I'm not sure yet. I reread Long Sun this\nsummer, so its fairly fresh, but it will necessarily mutate under the\npressure of Short Sun.\n\nOne point:\n\nRemora's deadly truth:\n\n\"Though trodden beneath the shepherd's heel,\n the wild hyacinth blooms on the ground.\"\n\nAt first made me think, somehow, that the Seawrack/Hyacinth confusion\nhas some deeper meaning than the (slipping mask of \"Horn\" on\nSilk/Horn's soul speaking) aspect. Can it be that, in some sense,\nwe're meant to grasp some other identification between Seawrack and\nHyacinth? Seawrack can't, I would think, be Hyacinth in any sense\nlike Silk is Horn/vice versa, but I think there's a metaphorical\nconnection here, but I can't quite get a grasp on it. Note how\nSeawrack reacts to Silk, though she has known only Horn. I don't\nthink this is just (A) Mother's orders or (B) the Horn in him or even\n(C) the fact that everybody trusts Silk." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "\"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\" John 8:32\n--\nAlex David Groce (agroce+ at cs.cmu.edu)\nPh.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department\n8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066\nhttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }