Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v012.n041

From: Ian Smith <doctoriancsmith at hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 17:37:39 +0000

Thanks-you for alleviating my stupidity re: the Hyacinth passage!More
confusion and comments to chew over:

Mantis said:

"Part of the difficulty surrounding Horn giving Silk's eye to Pig, it seems
to me, is the fact that at precisely this moment, when Pig first looks at
his benefactor after the operation, the transfer happens, and Horn/Silk
becomes Horn/Silk/Silk."

and David DiGiacomo replied

"Is there any reason to think that a god can do a direct bio-bio transfer?
If not, the path must have been Pig->glass, glass->Horn/Silk, and it
happened shortly after Pig saw Horn/Silk."

I had assumed that there was a transfer from pig>silk/horn just after the
eye op, but then I started to doubt myself.  If bio>bio ransfers can occur,
why would Scylla fret so much about being stuck in Oreb?  She could simply
hop into another human Blue resident at will!  If such a transfer appears
possible, it makes something of a mockery of Horn/Silk's extended
explanations about the transfer into animals being a problem because they
don't live very long.  But I'd forgotten Pig gets to look into Horn/Silk's
eyes for the first time in the prescence of a Glass. The bio>glass> bio
hypothesis seems like the way to go, for me.

Mantis also said:

"But back to Urth--that Scylla's body was in Severian's favorite mausoleum
(remember the bronze that has his own features) causes all sorts of big
ripples . . . is Severian, at root, a member of the same family?  He cannot
be Typhon, since Typhon is blond and entombed on Mount Typhon.  So if he is
a member of the royal family, he must be a son.  One of the two sons.  A
dark son.  Perhaps the dark son who had a mildly helpful role in TBOTLS."

Are there any  indicators that it is the same mausoleum?  Surely there must
have been hundreds in the necropolis?  Whilst I dearly want it to be the
same, my brain is hurting...

re: the s connection between Seawrack and Hyacinth, I am so lad that Alex
pointed this out.  I don't have any ideas to add other than to say that I
think there MUST be a connection for the story to make sense.  Otherwise, I
can't think of one reason why Silk, after finally 'killing ' Horn's spirit
once and for all, would then as his first act call Seawrack (who had never
met him) and set off on a journey with her.  And if you assume that Horn
hasn't been 'killed' or expunged from Silk in some major way, it makes the
big surprise at the end of the story somewhat lame, i.e. 'Horn was a bit
more in control but now Silk is', which I'm pretty sure isn't the case.

Finally someone (sorry can't remember who) was asking about the connection
between Cilinia and Urth-Scylla.  I'm sure somewhere in RTTW this is
explained in terms of Clinia making a pact wth Urth-Scylla before being
scanned for the Whorl.  Presumably, she picked the name as a kind of homage
to or sign of allegiance to the origional Scylla.

And yes, why did the farmer get so stroppy with Horn/Silk after giving him
the seeds?

Ian

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