Subject: (whorl) RTTW spoilers: alga's complaints

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at sirius.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 20:16:01 +0000

Putting aside the godling issue as the lesser, I'm still working on how
alga is bugged by Jahlee's death.

Aside about Twain: well, we might agree he had some authorial mishap there,
but the thing is that TOM SAWYER, with all its slickness, is still
considered a juvenile novel, whereas flawed HUCKLEBERRY FINN is literature.
And nobody talks about the other novel (or two?) that features these
fellows.

Aside about RTTW's ending seeming to exhibit authorial fatigue. Oh, really?
If he were tired of the characters I'd expect a retirement of some sort,
happily ever after or simply dead--I'd hardly expect him to launch them on
a starship!

Now I know we are not talking about something as simple as a happy ending,
and yet the yearning for a happy ending might play a part.  Around these
parts we've had discussions among a few people with regard to TBOTNS, that
basically boil down to: "But =why= do all the people have to die as Urth is
flooded into Ushas?"  Some people are really, really bothered by this--that
the "victory" at the ending is so tainted by the megadeath, to the point
that it ain't really happy at all . . . and we have valid debates over
whether Severian is more anti-christ than saviour.

So I can understand a disappointment like that: the belief that somehow,
the hero was going to complete the quest =and= avoid the awful penalties,
but then the quest is finished and the consequences are worse than
imagined.

Can you agree that the situation of Jahlee and Horn is like Jim and Huck
floating down the river?

Here's another analogy, this time from film: you liked "Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon" pretty well.  SPOILER WARNING!

As much as we would like a 100% happy ending to that fine film, after a
certain point we would be perfectly willing to accept a 50% happy ending
(i.e., the younger couple), yet even that is snatched away by a device
which seems quite arbitrary, raising all sorts of questions (nevertheless,
I have my theories, of course: mainly that she really =is= who she jokingly
said she was at the restaurant).  Now then, does this diminish the movie?
I certainly don't think so, and I doubt that you do.

Of course you are entitled to your opinions.  You don't have to like the
death of Jahlee--fwiw, I don't like it, but I see that it flows from what
came before it.  You think it perfunctory, and if it were written in the
3rd person authorial voice I might agree with you, but it is written by the
man who did it, and it is too painful for him to write any more than he
does.  It seems to me that the moment was an explosion, where Jahlee shed
her mask and was a vampire, and Silk, spiritual son of Pike the Vampire
Slayer, suddenly burst into violent action.  A side of the narrator he is
not at all happy about; an aspect which seems to betray all that he has
been working towards.

=mantis=

Sirius Fiction
Catalog and errata sheet at http://www.sirius.com/~mantis/

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---

From: Spectacled Bear <spectacled.bear at pobox.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 12:04:43 +0000

>alga is bugged by Jahlee's death.

Let me have a go.

1. Jahlee thinks of herself as a beautiful woman - a bit of a vamp,
one might say. Compare her teasing Hide, and probably others, plus
the guard on Urth, and her general attitude.

2. The Rajan is a) charismatic b) powerful c) the first man who has
ever treated her with kindness, let alone respect. If alga or anyone
else can make a case for her *not* falling in love with him, I'd like
to see it.

3. She meets Nettle. Nettle is her great rival. Even if she was human,
how safe would Nettle? But Jahlee isn't human, however kind Horn has
been to her, however much she wants to be (and Nettle *is*, which would
inspire bitterness and envy in a better person than Jahlee).
Without wishing to appear speciesist, she *is* a blood drinking reptile.
And Horn loves Nettle. He really does, though he may not have been very
good at showing it, and Jahlee can see that.

Given the above, if you were Jahlee, could *you* resist biting Nettle?

And if you were Horn, how would you feel when you saw it?
The original Horn, dour, impulsive, and knowing the inhumi only
as vampiric monsters, would be right in there. Horn who has come
to know Jahlee might feel more charitably towards her, but the
betrayal will surely make this *more* horrific for him. There's
hardly an aspect of his character, Horn or Silk, that isn't going
to be outraged. He loves Nettle. He brought Jahlee to Lizard, and
she betrayed his trust - both her guilt and his own, projected,
are going to add vehemence to his attack. It's significant that
he doesn't calmly use the lethal weapon he carries. This is personal.
I've spent a paragraph arguing for the plausibility of Horn attacking
the inhuma who's biting his wife, but I don't really need to, I think.

Finally, though he didn't intend murder (I'm fairly sure of that),
she's hardly going to get better. There isn't much place in a happy
ending for a jealous vampire, however much we want there to be.

...

>Aside about RTTW's ending seeming to exhibit authorial fatigue. Oh, really?

Yes, that's nonsense. Sorry, alga, my unicellular friend, but what I mean
is that I don't agree with it at all. I found the resolution of the book
to be as satisfying as advertised, which is very interesting considering
it only involved a change of point of view - "does Horn know he's Silk?"
is a nonsensical question when looked at closely. It's a contradiction,
and the resolution is that only Silk can be Silk. It is more than a change
of perspective as well, of course - Silk recovers.

>happily ever after or simply dead--I'd hardly expect him to launch them on

I must admit, as an aside to the aside, that of all the possible things
that I could have guessed might happen, Nettle setting out on a starship
was not one of them!

...

>Can you agree that the situation of Jahlee and Horn is like Jim and Huck

It sounds like it to me. There was always going to be trouble when
he got home. I wish there wasn't, but that isn't realistic.

...

>not at all happy about; an aspect which seems to betray all that he has

And he stops writing. For a compulsive scribbler like Horn, this is an
indication of a highly traumatic experience.

Spectacled Bear.

[

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