# for joe- horn in babbie *The Whorl list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 09 Jan 2002* > 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. --- ### maa32 *09 Jan 2002, 05:03* For Joe, who said: > If Horn is in Babbie, why have him in glasses? Silk is more likely to be in glasses, no? I do think there is something to this, but re-reading the relevant chapters didn't help me work it out In a previous post, I talked at great length about the various clues of Horn in Babbie: Maytera Marble's prophecy, right in On Blue's Waters, when she says, after horn will experience wealth and command (ie, being Rajan of Goan): "I see you Horn, riding a beast with three horns." OK - Babbie has two horns, and with Horn riding him, he has three. Then at the end of On Blue's Waters, like three pages from the end, Horn says goodbye to everybody and hears someone calling for Babbie on the shore and knows that they are calling for him as Horn, then the narrator BECOMES Babbie for a few seconds (the text says, I couldn't see him, but I put my head on his knee, or something like that) as the largest fragment of Horn's spirit flees into Babbie, accounting for the great shift in narrative concern from On Blue's Waters, which happens almost entirely in the past, to In Green's Jungles, where the story of Horn is told in bits and peices and in large part in the third person at Inclito's house as a story that happened to someone else (because, in large part, it did), now that most of Horn is in Babbie. Read chapter 17 of return to the whorl again. See how he treats Hoof. He hugs him, picks him up, comforts him, and tries to say huh huh huh at two points: once pointing to his mouth at his horns, another time right after he realizes his son is there. (Has everybody just not been reading my posts? Maybe I should organize them better. sorry if they are hard to follow :( ?) Sorry for repeating myself so many times for those of you who have followed me all along. I think this outweighs the glasses a bit. --- ### Mark Millman *09 Jan 2002, 08:58 · follows maa32* Joe, Welcome to the list; we're very glad to have you aboard. I'm afraid that Mr. Wolfe give Babbie glasses as one of his jokes; Babbie (presumably like many other Bluvian creatures) not only has a doubled set of limbs compared to the Urth model, he also has a doubled set of eyes. Yes, folks, you've guessed it; Babbie has four eyes--thus, his astral self, which ap- pears human, is made to wear glasses. All together now: -groan-. Is there a deeper meaning to this? There may be one, but I've never seen it. Then again, Wolfe did once say that his sense of humor "makes women scream and strong men faint" (I paraphrase, but I believe it's pretty close). Marc, I don't believe that this has very much at all to do with the spirit in Babbie (ex- cept in so far as it causes him to appear recognizably human when traveling astrally), and thus doesn't affect your argument--which I, for one, find pretty convincing. Nacre > On Tue, 8 Jan 2002, maa32 wrote: > For Joe, who said: >> If Horn is in Babbie, >> why have him in glasses? >> Silk is more likely to >> be in glasses, no? I do >> think there is something >> to this, but re-reading >> the relevant chapters >> didn't help me work it >> out > In a previous post, I talked at great > length about the various clues of Horn > in Babbie: Maytera Marble's prophecy, > right in On Blue's Waters, when she > says, after horn will experience > wealth and command (ie, being Rajan of > Goan): "I see you Horn, riding a beast > with three horns." OK - Babbie has two > horns, and with Horn riding him, he > has three. > Then at the end of On Blue's Waters, > like three pages from the end, Horn > says goodbye to everybody and hears > someone calling for Babbie on the > shore and knows that they are calling > for him as Horn, then the narrator > BECOMES Babbie for a few seconds (the > text says, I couldn't see him, but I > put my head on his knee, or something > like that) as the largest fragment of > Horn's spirit flees into Babbie, ac- > counting for the great shift in narra- > tive concern from On Blue's Waters, > which happens almost entirely in the > past, to In Green's Jungles, where > the story of Horn is told in bits and > peices and in large part in the third > person at Inclito's house as a story > that happened to someone else (be- > cause, in large part, it did), now > that most of Horn is in Babbie. Read > chapter 17 of return to the whorl > again. See how he treats Hoof. He > hugs him, picks him up, comforts him, > and tries to say huh huh huh at two > points: once pointing to his mouth at > his horns, another time right after > he realizes his son is there. (Has > everybody just not been reading my > posts? Maybe I should organize them > better. sorry if they are hard to > follow :( ?) Sorry for repeating > myself so many times for those of you > who have followed me all along. I > think this outweighs the glasses a bit. --- ### Dan'l Danehy-Oakes *09 Jan 2002, 17:34 · follows Mark Millman* > Nacre wrote: > I'm afraid that Mr. Wolfe give Babbie glasses > as one of his jokes ... Thank you for pointing this out. One thing I mean to do at some point is write an article cataloging some of the hidden jokes in the Foo Sun books; GW has a sense of humor that is at times positively Joycean... ---