{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/259",
    "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": 259,
    "subject": "Horn's Creation",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-04-05T10:33:15+00:00",
    "last": "1997-04-05T10:33:15+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0004-0299@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Doug Eigsti",
        "address": "douge at nti.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-04-05T10:33:15+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Horn's Creation",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Tercel,\n\n\tYour comment on Oreb's attack on Tick revives the issue of just\nhow much of Horn's THE BOOK OF SILK depicts actual events, and how much is\nmere fabrication. You are correct, Oreb could not have given Horn his\nstory for the sake of posterity, so the events seen through his eyes, must\nhave been supplied by Horn. \n\tI had originally thought that Horn might have interviewed the key\nplayers to fill in the gaps in Silk's story, but, aside from the few\nsegments mentioned below, nowhere can I find the opportunity. There simply\nisn't enough time. Silk vanishes chasing Hyacinth just as Horn is leaving\non the lander. Auk and Chenille went to Green. These, alone, would leave\nhuge gaps in horn's account. Gaps that he would, of necessity, have had to\ntry to piece together from the survivors on Blue.\n\tHe does mention, in \"My Defense\" (IV, p371.2), that \"Many of you\nurge me to tell the story in my proper person, relating only what I saw,\nand in effect making myself my own hero.\" We know this to be false\nmodesty. As I have posted earlier, he interjects personally flattering\nstatements throughout the text. I submit that a story told in Horn's proper\nperson would be brief indeed. He rightly set about to \"recount the story\nof Patera Silk\", (IV, p371.3), a more worthy protagonist. And a fine tale\nit is, even if it is fiction.\n\tTo Horn's credit, he does list some of his sources in \"My Defense\"\n(IV, pp371 - 382): Marble reportedly relayed much while they served in the\nCalde's Palace together; Auk and Chenille on the flight to Mainframe (with\nan explanation of Auk's shriving); \"Blood's conversations with Silk and\nMatera Marble were detailed to us by them\", (although I still wonder when\nSilk found the time. No such event is described in the text, even though\nHorn's long conversations with Silk on the airship and in the manteion\nare.); Regarding Doctor Crane Horn \"tried to convey something of\" his\ncharacter, implying that great license was taken in depicting him; Remora\ngave him much of Incus's character. (I chuckle trying to imagine Remora\nimpersonating the sing-song metered speech of Incus); Horn knew Quetzal, \nrecounting, in detail, his account of Quetzal's \"vanishing\". Remora, \nagain, relayed further details concerning Quetzal. All told, these account \nfor just a fraction of THE BOOK OF THE LONG SUN. Horn is to be commended \nfor filling in the gaps so richly.\n\n\tThis leads to another question: How did the text, known as THE\nBOOK OF THE LONG SUN, get into our hands? Wolfe details how, in THE BOOK\nOF THE NEW SUN, he acted merely as the translator for a manuscript that\nhad \"survived so many centuries of futurity\". One must suppose a similar\njourney taken by Horn's tale, and, indeed, for THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN. \nSeverian wrote two copies of his account. One was placed into a sealed\nleaden container and set adrift from Tzadkiel's ship as it plied time and\nspace. Presumedly this is the copy Wolfe obtained. (I forget the fate of\nthe other copy. Any takers?) I am at a loss trying to construct a scenario\nfor Horn's STARCROSSERS LANDFALL. How did it cross the stars in time and\nspace to fall into Wolfe's land? I am sure Mr. Wolfe will explain all in\nTHE BOOK OF THE SHORT SUN. \n\n=Talon=\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}