Subject: (whorl) The Return of Horn

From: maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu>
Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 23:02:43 +0000

Here's another theory.
Adam and Nutria said

>>But there are  ways of indicating that the protagonist is both Horn and Silk
>>without using amalgams like "Silkhorn."  And while the editors' suppression
>>of any name but "he" leaves the protagonist's identity ambiguous in
>>retrospect, it doesn't read that way at the time.  Since "Horn" protests
>>>>that he is Horn throughout, and since the third-person sections give us 
(we
>>think) access to "Horn's" mind which seemingly bears out his claim, weaccept 
his claim at face value (at least I did).  So the failure to identify
>>the protagonist is deceptive in effect.  And I have a hard time believing
>>the editors wouldn't have recognized that and taken steps to correct it.
>>>>--Adam
>
>         though this has been discussed to death, you do bring another
>slant to it. Wolfe is more than capable of tricking us and reversing our
>expectations at the end of this trilogy. But are the editors of the 3d
>person sections? Why would they do this? As you note, such tricking makes
>little sense. I persist in suspecting that the Narrator is really mainly
>Horn, though in Silk's body, and that this is who he continues to be. But
>at this point, I'm reduced to little more than a suspicion, because of the
>effective way everyone here has beaten me up over this.
>         And I'll bring this up again, since nobody commented on in when I
>brought it up the first time. I cannot find the place, but at one point the
>Narrator, having been accused of being Silk for the nth time, looks for a
>scar he expects to find on Silk's body, and claims not to find it, thereby
>reassuring himself that he is not Silk. Of course, it is pretty clear that
>he is in Silk's body, and is partly Silk; but he himself thinks he has
>reasons to dismiss the views of everyone around him.
>
>Nutria the Nut

On the contrary, I think the editors do have a valid reason to say that in 
fact SILK returned instead of their father HORN in some unknown jokers' body.  
Their father is a failure without the return of silk, and the people (if we 
can assume the TBSS will serve for common propoganda like TBLS) will be more 
likely to live in peace if they thought Silk really did come back for them and 
found them wanting.  They have something to strive for.  If it was only Horn 
in a weird man's body (or worse, some inhuma impersonating a dead man he met 
on Green [who subsequently betrays the other inhumi and must be hunted down]), 
then he was a true failure.  Children won't let their parents be failures if 
they can help it, especially if they are already semi-legendary.  Why not lie 
in the sections they compose?  Why not hide the true identity of the weirdo 
coming in, and lend credence to his claims.  "Sure, he was our father. And he 
was Silk, too! What a true hero Horn was.  He didn't fail us!"  Even though 
Silk is conveniently gone.

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