Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v012.n099

From: David Lebling <dlebling at shore.net>
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 11:38:46 +0000

> From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
> I thought the climactic revelation was that the narrator is Silk in Silk's
> body.

That's what I can happen when I post before my first cup of coffee has
kicked in. What I should have said is:

"The narrator occupies Silk's body, but the climactic revelation that Silk's
mind is still there with Horn's falls flat because we've known or at least
suspected so since the first volume."

or perhaps:

"From early on in volume one we've known that the physical body of the
narrator is Silk's. We've also known that Silk's personality is in that body
as well as Horn's. The final acknowledgement by the narrator that he is in
fact Silk falls flat, because _we've_ known or suspected it for a long
time."

As I said in an earlier post, we're watching Silk repair himself behind the
Horn 'front,' and when he's done, Horn isn't necessary to him anymore.
Seeing Silk recognize this is a poignant moment, and the best part of the
denouement, but we saw it coming all along, so the impact is less.

-- Dave Lebling
    aka vizcacha

*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