Subject: (whorl) Hard to say goodbye (RTTW spoiler)

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 09:34:58 +0000

on 2/19/01 10:38 AM, James Jordan at jbjordan at gnt.net wrote:

> But is Silk 
> the kind of man who cannot face saying farewell to people he has
> unwittingly wronged? Okay, we can distinguish between Book Silk and Real
> Silk, and say that Book Silk would never act this way, while Real Silk
> might. But I'm not convinced this is enough.

As i said in my earlier post, this is a good question, and I don't have a
really good answer.  One possibility that occurred to me is that Hoof and
Hide are not only reminders of the worst time in Silk's life, when he was
literally insane with grief; they were witnesses to Silk's delusion, as well
as being subjects of it, in a sense.  It wouldn't be surprising for Silk now
to find their presence both painful and embarrassing (perhaps he realizes he
won't be able to conceal his reaction, and wants to spare them the pain this
would cause them).  But, as you say, I'm not convinced this is enough.

But there are other unanswered questions surrounding Silk's departure.  Why
does he find it necessary to leave so quickly, after all the effort made by
both Horn and "Horn" to bring him?  And why does he refuse to see Horn's
sons, but bring along Horn's wife, even though the reason he gives applies
equally to her?  I can guess at plausible answers, but they'd just be
guesses.  It's clear that, for whatever reason, Wolfe wanted to get this
episode over with as quickly as possible, even if that meant leaving Silk's
and Nettle's motives unexplained (had he wanted to, he could have found some
way to convey this information to the "editors," even without having Silk
talk to his sons).

--Adam

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