# RTTW spoilers, structure of TBOTSS *The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 15 Feb 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. --- ### Michael Andre-Driussi *15 Feb 2001, 11:50* > Adam wrote: > No doubt Horn could impersonate Silk's manner of speaking. But why would he > want to do so consistently? He doesn't know, or he denies, he's in Silk's > body. He is aware that everybody thinks he's Silk, and wants to convince > them he's not. It makes no sense that he would then go around acting like > Silk. In any case, it's not just his manner of speaking, it's his > character. The Horn of the journey to Pajarocu is not inclined to dispense > wisdom at the drop of a hat, as the "Horn" on the Whorl is. > > As for the distinction between Silk and litSilk, it's true we don't know the > "real Silk," only litSilk. But we also know the litHorn of the trip to > Pajarocu. And the "Horn" of the Whorl resembles litSilk much more closely > than litHorn. If you had written "litHorn of TBOTLS is the literary creation of the narrator Horn; litHorn, of TBOTSS, is a literary creation of the narrator `N'" then I'd know we were on the same page. As it is, I sense continuing Time Frame problems. Here, let me make a simplified diagram: 1) Horn goes out on Blue. 2) Horn goes out on Green. 3) Horn/Silk goes out on the Whorl. 4) The rajan of Gaon begins his book about steps 1, 2, and 3. 5) OBW: the narrator on Blue and on step 1-Blue (same place, different person). 6) IGJ: the narrator on Blue, step 2-Green, on Green (ditto), and on Urth. 7) RTTW: the narrator on Blue, step 3-Whorl, and on Urth. If it helps to visualize that Escher drawing of the two hands drawing each other, then by all means do so! Remember: just as our sense of Silk in TBOTLS is created by the writing of Horn, so our sense of all the Horns in TBOTSS is created by the writing of "N." It is rather like the VRT/John Marsch problem. =mantis= Sirius Fiction Catalog and errata sheet at http://www.sirius.com/~mantis/ *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. --- ### Adam Stephanides *15 Feb 2001, 18:54 · follows Michael Andre-Driussi* > on 2/15/01 1:50 PM, Michael Andre-Driussi at mantis at sirius.com wrote: > Adam wrote: >> As for the distinction between Silk and litSilk, it's true we don't know the >> "real Silk," only litSilk. But we also know the litHorn of the trip to >> Pajarocu. And the "Horn" of the Whorl resembles litSilk much more closely >> than litHorn. > If you had written "litHorn of TBOTLS is the literary creation of the > narrator Horn; litHorn, of TBOTSS, is a literary creation of the narrator > `N'" then I'd know we were on the same page. As it is, I sense continuing > Time Frame problems. True; but this is irrelevant to the point I was trying to make, which is that the representation of the "Horn" of the Whorl resembles any representation of Silk, or of the Silkified "Horn" of Gaon and after, more closely than it resembles any representation of Horn before he was put into Silk's body. Actually, my memory of TBOTLS isn't that great, so I'm really going by the representations of Horn and the Silkified "Horn" in TBOTSS. > Remember: just as our sense of Silk in TBOTLS is created by the writing of > Horn, so our sense of all the Horns in TBOTSS is created by the writing of > "N." It's not quite the same, because there are three different narrators who portray "Horn" in TBOTSS: the Rajan, the group narration by the editors, and Hoof (I'm not counting Daisy, since Horn is gone by then). But I'm not aware of any differences between their portrayals of the "Horn" who's in Silk's body. This actually could support your basic theory, if not your details: you could argue that since the editors only saw Horn-in-Silk after he'd been reinfused with Silk, they projected that personality onto the Horn-in-Silk of the Whorl. But I would still disagree, mainly because there are other reasons (which I've stated) for believing that Silk was present in the "Horn" of the Whorl. --Adam *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ---