{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/1355", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "whorl", "thread": { "id": 1355, "subject": "Bad Horn", "messages": 1, "voices": 1, "first": "2000-02-19T10:43:51+00:00", "last": "2000-02-19T10:43:51+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Allan Lloyd", "address": "lloyd at nexus.kc3.co.uk" }, "date": "2000-02-19T10:43:51+00:00", "subject": "(whorl) Bad Horn", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Despite my reservations about the conclusion of the Short Sun trilogy, I\nwant to talk about something which Wolfe does very well in the books,\nnamely the transformation of sinful Horn into saintly Silk. No-one seems\nto have remarked upon what a totally unpleasant character Horn is at the\nstart of OBW.\n\nHe is a serial adulterer, (even before the affair with Seawrack if I\nread the clues right) who sells the lives of Nettle and his sons to\nKrait to save his own life. He sneaks off on his mission without saying\ngoodbye to his wife, tricks Seawrack and Babbie into missing the lander\nand deserts Evensong on the river even though he knows she can't go back\nto Goa or to her own people and is in serious danger. All of these\nactions are rationalised by a most persuasive narrator, one who\nconstantly bemoans his lost wife. The more I read these passages, the\nmore they sound like a drunken trucker in a bar telling all and sundry\nhow much he loves his wife before going to the local whorehouse.\n(What is this thing Wolfe has with his heroes deserting their female\ncompanions by rivers or the sea, Sevarian does it with Dorcas, and I can\nthink of few Wolfe characters who are married and faithful.)\n\nHorn is not a terrific father either. I'm sure all of us with teenage\nkids can sympathise with a father getting annoyed with sulky adolescent\nsons, but Horn actively hates poor old Sinew, even after he follows him\non the long and dangerous journey to Pajoruco. He takes pleasure in\nshocking his son by showing his relationship with Seawrack. He suspects\nSinew of wanting to kill him, and considers killing Sinew himself. He\nonly makes some reconciliation with his son after the fighting on the\nlander when he is forced to admit that his son has some good qualities.\n\nHorn is a careless and violent man, blaming others for his own mistakes.\nHe loses all of the supplies that he was given for his mission, and then\nviolently beats the man who was supposed to be looking after the boat,\nalthough he had no proof that he was involved in the theft.\n\nBut worst of all is the savage and brutal rape of Seawrack. His excuse\nis that he was acting under enchantment from the Siren's song. (I don't\nsee that standing up in a court of law: \"Honest, Judge, she was asking\nfor it. She sang at me.\") I would argue that, even though Seawrack may\nhave seduced him with her singing, the brutallity of the attack comes\nfrom Horn's character. It must have been pretty bad if he is advising\nher not to go swimming afterwards because the bleeding may start again.\nIt makes you wonder what his sex life with Nettle was like, and may\nexplain why she was willing to go off with the new, improved Silk at the\nend of RTTW.\n\n(As an aside, I know that Wolfe's attitude to women has been criticised\nbefore, but these books do seem to bring out the worst in him. Women\nseem to be inconvenient accessories, to be picked up or dumped at the\nhero's convenience. And I found Silk's chats to the teenage girls almost\nembarrassingly unreal)\n\nSo, I don't like Horn. This makes his transformation into Silk more\nnoticable and dramatic, and may explain why his character is almost\ncompletely erased by the end. I say almost, because the killing of\nJahlee at the end of RTTW could have been the emergence of the violent\nnature of Horn, showing Silk that he was not fully redeemed and not\nquite the saint that he thought he was. An explanation for his refusal\nto stay on Blue and become their leader because the danger of the\ncorruption of power was still in him?\n\nOn another note, I've just finished reading three amazing books which\nhave given me as much pleasure as anything written by Wolfe.\n\nMichael Moorcock's \"King of the City\" is his masterpiece, full of life\nand energy and drenched in the smell and feel of London. Not a trace of\nfantasy in it, but if you want an unreliable narrator try this, or his\nColonel Pyat books.\n\nMary Gentle's \"Ash; a secret history\" is just unclassifiable. An\nhistoric novel that changes into an alternative history then into\nscience fiction, packed with powerful male and female characters and an\namazing knowledge of medieval warfare.\n\nAnd Crowley's \"Daemonomania\". Words fail me. Is there any discussion of\nCrowley's work on the web? On a second reading, I've just started to\nrealise how much of the historical part which I had assumed was fantasy\nis based on John Dee's actual life and works; and how much the realistic\npresent day sections are mutating into fantasy as Crowley's world\nchanges. I can't wait for the final novel in the sequence. Does anyone\nhave any idea how long it is likely to be before he finishes it? \n\n Happy Easter,\n \n Allan (and it is Allan and not Adam {Alga!}\nor Mr Lloyd, please. I don't want to take a Wolfean nom-de-plume; if my\nwife discovered I was signing myself Wooly Mammoth or Bug she wouldn't\nstop laughing all week. These names are very psychologically revealing,\nyou know.)\n\n*This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun." } ] } ] }