# Not using Quadrifons's name

*The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 18 Feb 2001*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1195>

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### Dan Rabin
*18 Feb 2001, 21:38*

There are injunctions in the Torah against using the name of God, 
including one in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:7).  The name, which 
occurs in written form throughout the Torah, is not pronounced when 
reading the text out loud; indeed, it is not currently known how to 
pronounce it.  In most English translations the name is given as "the 
Lord", which is a translation of the Hebrew word that is substituted 
for the name when read aloud.

This makes sense as a manifestation of the Outsider, especially in 
association with an exodus!  If the principal narrator of _Short Sun_ 
indeed communicated with Quadrifons, this would echo Moses, who spoke 
to God face to face.

Aside: I myself tend to view these correspondences as associational 
rather than allegorical.  Wolfe doesn't have to write the Bible--it's 
already written.  We spend a lot of time here trying to make all the 
puzzle pieces fit together, but I'm not sure they're meant to. 
SIlk/Horn might still have Mosaic coloration, even if he wasn't 
denied entrance to Blue by the Outsider, and even if he didn't have a 
brother as high priest...hmm... Quetzal as Aaron?  Naah.

   -- Dan Rabin


*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.

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