on the airship

CoxRathvon30 Dec 1996, 19:38original

I've just finished "Exodus" and have also just joined this terrific-looking mail group. I have lots of questions about both ventures (the Long Sun books and the mailing list). Pardon this newbie for being a little slow to latch on. If I'm not mistaken, somebody has asked about the conversation between Silk and Horn on the top of the airship. I'm not sure how many replies have been posted. But I do feel that that conversation is key, and I find it very enigmatic. Why is Silk suicidally depressed? And what happened at the end of that conversation--did Horn begin to fall and did Mucor save him? Let me suggest that among other things Silk has begun to suspect corruption in Pas's plan. He may not specificaly suspect alien involvement in the plan. But certainly--as he points out to Horn--he suspects that the cities of the Whorl have been separated and pitted against one another to prevent them from uniting against Pas. I think that in this late hour of the story, Silk has despaired of all the Whorl gods, and it takes a mighty effort for him to retain his faith in the Outsider's more remote designs. But I do not understand the implications of Hycanith's falsity--that she overpowered a soldier and betrayed an ability (or something about her past) inconsistent with her claims about herself. What am I missing here? Can anyone help? And again, what is the culmination of this scene, when Horn appears to fall? Hoping for clarity, Henry Rathvon Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com

Doug Eigsti31 Dec 1996, 11:08original

↳ follows, by subject match CoxRathvon

9 quoted lines

[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun] I've just finished "Exodus" and have also just joined this terrific-looking mail group. I have lots of questions about both ventures (the Long Sun books and the mailing list). Pardon this newbie for being a little slow to latch on. If I'm not mistaken, somebody has asked about the conversation between Silk and Horn on the top of the airship. I'm not sure how many replies have been posted. But I do feel that that conversation is key, and I find it very enigmatic. Why is Silk suicidally depressed? And what happened at the end of that conversation--did Horn begin to fall and did Mucor save him? Let me suggest that among other things Silk has begun to suspect corruption in Pas's plan. He may not specificaly suspect alien involvement in the plan. But certainly--as he points out to Horn--he suspects that the cities of the Whorl have been separated and pitted against one another to prevent them from uniting against Pas. I think that in this late hour of the story, Silk has despaired of all the Whorl gods, and it takes a mighty effort for him to retain his faith in the Outsider's more remote designs. But I do not understand the implications of Hycanith's falsity--that she overpowered a soldier and betrayed an ability (or something about her past) inconsistent with her claims about herself. What am I missing here? Can anyone help? And again, what is the culmination of this scene, when Horn appears to fall? Hoping for clarity, Henry Rathvon

Henry, You will find the posting by David Adrian "Re: Narrative Viewpoint" pertinent. I am reading through the first three books to prepare myself for EXODUS. The knowledge that Horn is the narrator puts a different slant on many scenes. How much of Silk's story is Horn's fiction, or rather Wolfe's fiction within a fiction? Readers of PEACE will know that Wolfe likes to lead the reader through many levels of nested stories. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the entire Long Sun series is a sample of the fantastic genre literature found on one of the shelves in Master Ultan's library written by a contemporary of Typhon. =Doug= Questions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com

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