Subject: (whorl) Re: Brother and Sister

From: Robert Borski <rborski at charter.net>
Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2001 02:47:29 +0000

William Ansley, in a curmudgeonly mode, having written:

<What do I mean by "loose ends"? Well, if I had the time and energy (which I
currently do not and almost certainly will not) I believe I could make up an
impressively lengthy list. To take just one example, the "brother and
sister" section toward the end of OBW. Is there anyone here who understands
it? Is there anyone here who feels that the book/trilogy is a better work
because this passage is in it?>

Well, for starters, the Brother and Sister section at the end of OBW is but
one of many in the SHORT SUN trilogy where disparate individuals who are not
actually related by blood are still able to forge loving, familial-type
bonds.

Horn, for example, has a number of pseudo-children, from Brother and Sister
to Krait and Jahlee to Fava and Mora.

HornSilk, meanwhile, has Hide and Hoof (and vice versa), while the Mother
has Seawrack and Maytara Marble has Mucor--even as Fava and Mora love each
other as much as sisters, just as Pig and Horn do brothers. Ditto for
Greater Scylla and the Mother. And Brother, if he really is Fava's Bricco,
is adopted by a highborn lady of the Vanished People as a son.

It's a very Christian theme, this notion of community--love thy Neighbor
(heh) as thy self--and it has repercusions all through the three books that
constitute SS, being a major leit motif.

So, yeah, obviously I disagree about your assessment of the Brother-Sister
section, believing it to be important, vital, and integral to the series.

Robert Borski

*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun.
*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/
*To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request at lists.best.com
*If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth at lists.best.com