Digest whorl.v012.n047

From: Kieran Cleary <kcleary at jb.man.ac.uk>> Subject: Re: (whorl) Pig, Godling

It fashed my een! And my kin are Scottish on my mother's side--which made it all the more irritating! I know where your kin are from despite that "uk" in your address....

Well, yes. But I do think the operative word is "debased." I love Juturna and the hierodules and think they are used extremely well by the author (especially in that last book that some on this list like to put down), but as I said in an earlier post, the godling, to me, seems like a Hollywood special effect that serves no purpose other than cover art. -alga *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

Yes, I've moved across the water. Thankfully, the fliers being Crew, we were spared any similar reproduction of an Irish dialect. I wonder, though, how Wolfe did his homework for Pig's. (BBC viewers may be forgiven for suspecting he's been watching re-runs of Rab C. Nesbitt). Kieran *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

In a message dated 01-02-13 17:10:53 EST, you write: << Woo-hoo! I finally found the passage I was looking for in IGJ. What seems to have thrown many of us off in RTTW is that only Horn/Silk's arm injuries are mentioned when the farmer's wife attempts to clean him up, whereas this is how Horn describes the situation upon waking up after transfusion into Silk: "[I] found myself upon my knees besides the open coffin of a middle-aged woman. My hands and arms and face and neck were all bleeding, and an old, worn knife covered with blood was by my hand. There was no one else in the poor little house in which I knelt, and almost nothing in it that was not torn or broken." (p. 127) Forgive me if this has previously been discussed, but I'm reading all kinds of theories about how Silk and Hyacinth ended up this way--suicide, a bomb, an attack. Has anyone thought about the following? Silk's wife is dead, he's beside the body covered in blood holding a bloody knife, nobody else is there, there are signs of a struggle. He then suppresses all memory of the events, including his own identity and wanders the world(s) trying to do good deeds and talking about what a bad, unworthy person he is (and committing a rape along the way for no apparent reason). Did Silk kill Hyacinth!? I know it's painful to think of our beloved Silk, but it certainly seems to merit discussion as at least a strong possibility. *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

...

So he's been to the undertaker in the nearest town, bought the coffin and he or they have put her into it, and his hands and arms and face are still bleeding? I don't think so. He's still holding the knife! My personal theory is that he wasn't trying to kill himself, either, but did all the damage in a frenzy of grief. Rending his garments and all that sort of thing. Spectacled Bear.

Well one thing that is important to keep in mind is that the events up to the transfer from Green at Horn's death are actions carried out by Horn, recollected by Silk/Horn. Silk doesn't rape anyone. This goes the other way around, too--before he becomes Silk, Horn has become a better man himself, and though it is Silk who adopts Jahlee (an easier task, I think, in some ways) it is Horn who adopts Krait-- despite (or because of) the fact that Krait is bitter gall to him, and a constant reminder of the worst event of his life*. * Worst, that is, until he kills Jahlee, but that is Silk and Horn both, I think.